The Creation of Prime Superior Honey

Sometimes a new idea revolutionizes growing. The world’s first and only inoculation honey with Beauveria bassiana (Prime Superior Clone) is positioned to do just that. In this blog we look at how a small group of entrepreneurs came up with an idea for a new product. A product that turns out to be even better than they expected https://primesuperior.com/.

The Background – Growing from Cuttings

Many plant growers start by taking cuttings (often called clones). This is a form of asexual reproduction. All the cuttings are identical genetically and are derived from the same Mother Plant without the need for flowers, fertilization, and seeds.

Now, some plants are easier to propagate using cuttings than others. These plants naturally form roots at the cut site, or they can easily be persuaded to form roots. This persuasion is normally in the form of a rooting hormone. It is an easy process for us to use hormones such as IBA to get plant cuttings to make roots. We can make cells from the plant produce roots because most plant cells are totipotent. This means that they can change and form pretty much all cell types. This is not something that is commonly found in animals. So, plants are just better!

The Background – Beauveria bassiana is the best symbiotic fungus for plants

Beauveria bassiana is a fungus that grows naturally in soils throughout the world. However, modern farming practices have greatly reduced the occurrence of this beneficial organism. It forms a symbiotic relationship with plants that can bring huge benefits to many important traits. In fact, it can benefit more important qualities of your plants that anything else I know of. Certainly, way more than toxic chemicals such as fungicides and insecticides.

I recently reviewed some of the latest peer-reviewed scientific publications on Beauveria. The list of benefits is staggering. They include:

• Increased yields
• Increased quality
• Faster germination
• More trichomes
• A larger root system
• Increased photosynthesis
• Increased disease resistance
• More biochemicals synthesized (for example terpenes, sugars, and cannabinoids)
• Improved drought tolerance
• Increased resistance to insects
• Reduced toxin levels
• Improved nutrient uptake
• Increased resistance to nematodes
• Increased tolerance of flooding

So, growers needed a product for making cuttings/clones, but that simultaneously inoculated with Beauveria.

The Story – Designing a New Product

In late 2020, the Prime Superior range was being designed so that however you grow plants, there is a product that you can use to inoculate with the beneficial fungus Beauveria bassiana. For cloning, a new product was needed that used all natural products, did not contain any synthetic rooting hormones, and could simultaneously inoculate with Beauveria.

To make cuttings/clones, most people currently use cloning gels or cloning powders. But there is a problem. If your product contains a synthetic rooting hormone like IBA, then it is classified as a Biopesticide.

So, what do you do if you want an effective cloning product that is all natural and not a pesticide?

What can you use that does not contain IBA?

What can take the place of synthetic gels as a carrier?

The Big Idea

Back in 2020, Nicholas Bianco, and Paul Rushton thought hard about finding answers to these problems. They reasoned they could simply get rid of the IBA because many plants, such as hemp/cannabis, can make roots without it. Perhaps IBA might speed up root initiation a little, but it wasn’t necessary.

That took care of the biopesticide problem. But the bigger question was what the carrier for the Beauveria spores should be if it wasn’t a synthetic gel.

The four entrepreneurs came up with a very clever solution – organic honey.

In the past, people used honey when they took cuttings. It is ideally suited to the task. It coats the end of the cut and stops it drying out, exactly as a synthetic gel does. But it is much better than an inert synthetic gel. Honey has antibacterial properties that help stop the clones from getting infected.

The first batch of the world’s first Inoculation Honey was made. It contained only organic honey and Beauveria bassiana conidiospores. It worked and Prime Superior Clone was born.

The Unexpected Extra Benefits

The first tests of Prime Superior Clone produced overwhelmingly positive reports. The product hit the shelves in Western New York. Amazingly, the results were better than predicted, but why? The answer came from organic growers of row crops out in the field. Many of these farmers add molasses to feed the beneficial organisms in the soil with carbohydrates.

So that was the answer. Honey has both fructose and glucose. These carbon sources can feed both the growing plant and the growing fungus. Way better than any synthetic gel, this synergy between the honey, the plant, and the beneficial fungus led to a patent application for Prime Superior Clone.

The World’s first inoculation honey is even more of a game-changer than the four inventors originally expected.

If you are growing from clones/cuttings – this is the future and you can try it now!