TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / December 6, 2018 / Toronto based CO2 GRO Inc. (''GROW'') (TSX-V: GROW, OTCQB: BLONF, FRA: 4021) is pleased to announce dramatic plant resistance improvement against common pathogens and a common predator using CO2 Foliar Spray. Bacterial (E. coli) and fungal (F. oxysporum) numbers showed a reduction by two orders of magnitude (over 90%) while a significant reduction in aphid counts was also identified.
Foliar Spray plants once infected with powdery mildew had over a 100% increase in days of plant survival post infection versus plants grown conventionally and CO2 gassed plants. The CO2 gassed plants had similar low results to conventional plants showing minimal pathogen resistance improvement using CO2 gas.
These pathogen and pest results will add to grower confidence to use GROW's natural CO2 Foliar Spray which is proven to sharply enhance plant growth and value. It could lead to the reduction of the amount of chemical pesticides, insecticides and fungicides used for optimal plant growth with CO2 Foliar Spray use.
CO2 FOLIAR SPRAY SCIENTIFIC TRIAL METHODOLOGY
Antipathogen experimentation considered bacterial (E. coli), fungal (F. oxysporum) Powdery Mildew strains and aphids (insects). Six individual experiments were conducted at St. Cloud State University under Dr. Matt Julius. Two grew pathogens directly on agar plates (one E. coli and one F. oxysporum). Four used peppers as a host for the pathogens; one used E. coli, one used F. oxysporum and one used Powdery Mildew. The sixth experiment used predator aphids.
CO2 Foliar Spray at 800 PPM dissolved was applied every fifteen minutes for three hours per day. E. coli, fungi, and aphid trials were five days long while the powdery mildew trials were 21 days in length.
With the powdery mildew trial, three variations were considered. A control, CO2 gassing at 1200 PPM, and CO2 foliar infusion at 800 PPM. Plants were infected with Powdery Mildew and days to mortality were counted for each experimental plant.
All experiments were compared with standard statistical methods and found major increases in resistance for all pathogens and predators trialed.
CANNABIS TRIALS PENDING
Several LP cannabis growers waiting to trial CO2 Foliar Spray following approval expressed concerns that its use could increase powdery mildew risk with limited Health Canada powdery mildew treatment options. These non-cannabis plant scientific results using powdery mildew prove the opposite.
The next series of scientific pathogen and predator resistance trials with be performed at two legal US cannabis facilities in early Q1, 2019. Results will be filed with Health Canada in support of approving the Canadian usage by LPs of CO2 Foliar Spray during plant cutting transplant and vegetative growth phases for superior pathogen and predator resistance.
Dr. Matt Julius concluded ''These results are consistent with the hypothesis that CO2 Foliar Spray use inhibits the growth of E. Coli, fungus and Powdery Mildew and retards insect grazers.''
John Archibald, CEO of GROW stated "These results add further confidence to our potential cannabis and non-cannabis plant growers of the dramatic plant value superiority using CO2 Foliar Spray over no CO2 gassing as well as over plants CO2 gassed.''
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