Rosaire & Armelle

The BIOPONIX plant growing system:

a legacy from Mrs Irène Saindon and Mr Rosaire Saindon 

Agriculture 4.0 : an overview.

Bioponics is a truly remarkable achievement in the area of regenerative and sustainable organic agriculture.

 

Just imagine an entire rooftop in any city in the world,  that can produce crop yields and quality that are comparable to those that Mr and Mrs Saindon and their children obtained seemingly so easily from their well kept garden and farmland so many years ago.

 

Just imagine any greenhouse operator who can benefit from the yields and performance of hydroponic culture while producing crops that are just as wholesome and nutritive as those obtained in a well kept organic backyard garden. 

 

But there is more !

 

 

They say roses can't stand wet feet. Really?

Easy as life !

Just imagine the roses that Mrs Saindon and their children grew around the house, all those years ago... and those of their grand-children, who still grow them in their ornamental landscaped  garden, as of today.

First of all, roses  are truly beautiful. Since Antiquity, they inspired poets, travelers and luxury. Their colors are amazing. Their smell is legendary.  But their culture is often tricky. For instance, roses won't thrive in heavy, poorly aerated soil. This is because their roots require a lot of oxygen. They also draw a lot of nutrients from the soil.

With the BIOPONIX system, the culture of roses is simplified to whether or not enough water is found at the bottom of the container in which they grow !

...What's for dinner, Mom?...

...Wholesome, 100% organic and diversified fruits and veggies !

Just a few examples:

The secret behind the system:

The story of the BIOPONIX planting system goes back a long time.

Gardening can often be a tedious chore: weeding, watering by hand, trimming, hoeing, plowing, fertilizing...plus, all of those well kept grandmom secrets!...The Saindon grandparents could confirm!

In a nutshell, the BIOPONIX approach to plant growing is a combination of what is called hydroponic culture and organic gardening. You may also call such a hybrid system as being hydro-organic agriculture. The commercial grower, the urban indoor/outdoor landscaper as well as the amateur horticulturist obtain the same crop yields as those of any greenhouse hydroponic grower, but the harvests will have the same organoleptic properties as those of a well kept 100% organic suburban backyard garden. Even balcony gardeners or urban dwellers can obtain the same quality crops that you easily can find at the local organic market. 

How is this possible?

That's because the BIOPONIX system unleashes the fantastic power of Nature: the regular use of a beneficial microbial consortium coupled with liquid organic fertilizers, working as part of an aerobic bioreactor comprising a thin layer of high porosity organic compost AND a root-formation interface support system. Moreover, the properties of such a system allows a very precise control of the inputs to the system, such as water, nutrients, and soil conditioners. The result is a high yield, high performance, zero carbon footprint food system that is easy to use, while eliminating any kind of waste and non-compostable, non-recyclable by-products - such as used glasswool bricks, that  are sent to the landfill.

This is what is called today Agriculture 4,0 : beyond organics.

1. Microbial agri-biotechnology

Bacterial and fungal endophytes

Endophytes are micro-organisms that naturally inhabit plant tissues. For instance, they can enter roots through microscopic openings caused by insects or soil nematodes. Then, they proliferate and even make their way throughout the plant. Some of them play an important role in plant defense mechanisms, as well as plant nutrition. In this case, a phenomenon, called the rhizophagous cycle, allows specific bacterial types to constantly bring nutrients from the soil and from organic plant fertilizers directly inside the roots. In the BIOPONIX system, the process of continuous plant nutrition through the help of beneficial micro-organisms is brought to a new level of efficiency, ensuring complete success in the culture of any plants, naturally. 

Arbuscular-vesicular mycorhizae

The interaction between plants and arbuscular mycorhizae dates back for more than 400 million years. This type of mutualistic association explains the success of land plants throughout the history of Life on Earth. Another example of such a beneficial interaction is lichen: in this case, an algae lives in close association with a fungus. Mycorhizae are microscopic fungi that live in a very close association with the roots of most plants. All species of orchids, for example, live in a mutualistic association with a microscopic mycorhizae called Rhizoctonia. The BIOPONIX system creates a soil environment that is perfectly compatible to mycorhizae, essential for optimal plant defense and development.

2. The root-formation interface support technology

The interface concept has proven time after time its uncanny ability to effectively prevent the root spiral formation that is commonly encountered in non-copper coated containers for plants. This allows fantastic opportinities in the areas of container gardening, urban greening, vertical agriculture and greenhouse agriculture. Plants can reach their full maturity, rapidly, without repotting. In fact, the spiral roots found at the bottom af any traditional container will progressively foster plant dormancy and will decrease crop yields. Optimal results are obtained when this event is decreased, even completely eliminated with the root formation interface technology, thus ensuring spectacular results to the amateur gardener. For instance, this picture shows the perfect developement of a free, dense, ramified and perfectly fonctional root system of an individual corn plant specimen that reached full maturity in its cassette environment.

Three market sectors:

1. Greenhouse organic food production

2. Urban greening/landscaping and periurban agriculture

3. Residential container horticulture

The Inventors

Margaret Bywater-Ekegard

Dr Maggie Bywater was born in London, UK, and studied medicine at the University of Uppsala, Sweden. After specializing with a Ph.D. in Pathology, she became a Senior Executive for the Swedish biotech company Pharmacia,  and gained extensive experience in clinical research as well as building biotechnology and life science related businesses. Since 2003, Pharmacia is a division of the American multinational pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer.

Maggie has many outstanding career accomplishments in inventing, identifying and commercializing technologies in the global biotech industry. Most recently, in 2007, Margaret founded and worked as a Executive Vice-President  Technology and Innovation, working in a high level team,  to build the high growth company Inocucor Technologies Inc, now known as Concentric Agriculture Inc.

Dr Bywater developed the microbial consortium used in the BIOPONIX system with the participation of a microbiologist colleague, Ms Ananda Fitzsimmons. Together with Marc-André, Maggie and Ananda documented for the first time the exceptional agricultural performances obtained while combining both technologies into what is known today as bioponic agriculture.

Marc-André Valiquette

Marc-André is the son of Mr Roger Valiquette , who was a WW2 RCAF veteran and a postmaster, and Mrs Irène Saindon, who was a grade school teacher. They all shared common values on the benefits of good nutrition, health and education. Marc-André studied biology and medicine at the University of Ottawa, from 1982 to 1988. He was more interested in pursuing a career in the area of biomedical research than becomming a physician. This is why he later obtained a Masters degree in molecular biology at Université de Montréal.

He discovered the root formation interface technology back in 1994, while working as a biomedical research assistant. Sounds kinda strange? Not if you know about Marc-André's passion for horticulture and agrology! In fact, he was a horticulturist and landscaper as a summer  worker during his years of schooling. He always grew plants as a hobby during his biomedical science research career.

Marc-André obtained patents and international awards for his plant growing technology at the International Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva, in 1996 and 1998. He then decided to further develop his discoveries, with the collaboration of experts from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, especially with Dr Yolande Dalpé and her colleagues. In doing this work, he used his  JARDIBAC recipient, shown in this page, which later gave rise to the BIOPONIX technology. Today, Marc-André and Maggie work together with a very competent team of highly skilled experts in the management team of BIOPONIX AGRICULTURE CORPORATION, towards the objective of developing business opportunities with the BIOPONIX technology, worldwide.

 

 

www.bioponixag.com