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by Dr Russell G. Sharp, Technical Director and founder of Plater Bio
Welcome to the brand new Plater Bio blog! The aim for the blog is to keep customers up-to-date with the latest developments in the company and made aware of interesting scientific discoveries in applied plant biochemistry. I also hope to summarize the latest industry news and will attempt to interpret what it means for the different sectors of agriculture and horticulture.
I have put together a ‘long list’ of topics that I believe you should find interesting and these will be covered week by week with a new blog posted every Friday afternoon. At least once a month the blog will cover one subject in the categories of ‘biostimulants’, ‘plant nutrition’, and ‘environment’, plus a post focusing on a specific sector of the industry. So please bookmark this page and write a comment below if there is a specific topic you would like to know more about.
With a background in working in both academic research and the biostimulants industry, I have set up Plater Bio to commercialise a whole portfolio of new products. These products lean on my experiences in plant physiology and biochemical research at Universities as well as business experience of Fertilizers, Biostimulants and Pesticides from working at Agrinos and Biotechnica.
I felt, unlike most academics, that moving into business was a logical transition as my research had always been focused on improving the cultivation of crops. Some examples of this include using plant growth regulators to modify the flowering of Rhododendron, microbial products to ret fibre crops (Cannabis, Linum, and Urtica), through to using alkaline buffers to trick plants into thinking they were experiencing drought and thus increase compactness of woody ornamental species.
In fact, I was experimenting with rooting powders in my father’s glasshouse back when I was 12. So, it was no surprise that I now have found myself making next-generation organic rooting powders to replace the conventional PGR products. And I still use the same Red Cedar glasshouse for my small-scale trials at home (pictured)!
In addition to myself, there is a great team supporting Plater Bio, especially at the Plater Group site in Glossop (Derbyshire) where Plater Bio is able to piggy back on the existing R&D, Quality, Safety, Finance and Manufacturing teams. I can often be found experimenting in the laboratory, overseeing the manufacturing of a new product, or just generally getting in the way of the admin team at Glossop.