Advertise on podcast: Redox Grows

It has been a rocky road for many growers. A question on the minds of many is whether 2027 will bring relief.  Josh Linville, VP of Fertilizer for StoneX, said the short-term outlook is continued high input costs,  but he hopes for improvement farther into the new year. “I’m saying that on the contingency that we find peace in the Middle East and normalcy back to vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz,” Linville said. “The sooner we get that body of water reopened, the better the reset is going to be by next summer. I still think even if we had a perfect situation today, there are still some problems in the spring. I think by next summer, we could do a lot of healing.” The short term may also improve in activity in Washington, D.C. Tyson Redpath of The Russell Group said two main areas of optimism include potential deescalation of tariffs and growing sentiment that a more modernized farm bill might finally be approved. He added with a Republican President and Democratically-controlled Congress, there may finally be the balance in place to reduce trade tariffs and open more agricultural exports. Farm chapter 12 bankruptcy filings rose 19 percent this year compared to 2025, according to University of Arkansas analysis.

You may not know Neil Justesen or Southern Fabrication Works, but the odds are good you have benefitted from his technology. Neil and his team work in Burley, Idaho, work with food companies throughout the world, to provide processing machinery that is literally cutting-edge. His clients primarily are involved with french fry production, but he also works with many additional companies and technologies. “I found a lot of excitement and joy, just solving problems that nobody has been able to solve before,” Justesen said. “Just the value to agriculture and food production is really exciting!” Through his second company, Mosaix, Justesen designed the 22,000 square foot second building at our Redox Bio-Nutrients headquarters. This state-of-the-art facility includes many hi-tech features, including a laboratory for product research.

Weather can make or break a crop, and this winter is one to watch, with a likely super El Niño taking shape. “We're very confident that this event will be extremely strong,” said Nat Johnson with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who is among the team tracking its progress. “It's already very strong. So we're very confident in how the El Niño will evolve in the tropical Pacific. And then now the question is how confident should we be in the expected impacts of El Niño over places like the US and throughout the world? And that's a little bit trickier because there are other factors that always influence our weather and climate places like North America.” Another closely following this climate pattern is Rob Doornbos, a grower and head of Weather Tools in Chico, California.  “It's totally unfounded to sit here and say, we got a Super El Niño batten down the hatches, we're all going to flood away,” he said. “We could have a very damaging year that's entirely possible and our data collection will complete here by the end of October and we will run our model and we will see what it says.” Doornbos studied the last four super El Niños in California. The first two were exceptionally wet with a lot of flooding. The last two were average to slightly dry precipitation.

Stress is unwelcome in all crops, and turfgrass is no exception. At Paris Mountain Country Club in South Carolina, Superintendent Sam Adams has successfully battled weather extremes and drought through Redox TurfRx products. “As soon as we had a few warm days this spring, before I applied any kind of fertilizers, they just grained up and looked beautiful and they've never done that before,” Adams said. “So that has to be because of the Redox that is in the soil. And once the weather turned and the grass had that nutrition there, it was able to kind of green up and come out of winter without me having to do anything to it.” Adams utilizes five TurfRx products, OxyCal, Platinum, NatureCur, Calcium and Supreme. With his entire state in severe drought or abnormally dry conditions, he is hoping for a rainy late fall and winter and appreciates the vital role Redox is playing on his course quality.  Find out more about Sam’s course at ParisMountainCC.net.

Latin America’s is one of the world’s largest net food exporters. It’s a fascinating market to monitor. More than 1 billion acres of crops are grown here, so major developments are felt elsewhere in the globe. The region’s expected growth rate is dependent on modernization and sustainability, including new agricultural tools like biostimulants. Latin America is the world's fastest growing and largest biostimulant market in the world. These materials, used probably, are one key to future prosperity.  Ignacio Moyano Cordoba, Vice President of Business Development with DunhamTrimmer, said helping farmers succeed has positive impacts well beyond agriculture.  "If farmers can produce more reliably while using water and nutrients carefully, that benefits supply chains and communities far beyond the farm," he said. "Latin America has an important role in that story. For me, the goal is to help farmers make better decisions and keep producing under increasingly difficult conditions for these moments." Find out more at DunhamTrimmer.com.

Located in Rochester Mills, Pennsylvania, Pine Valley Farms is a family owned and operated produce farm that started in 1932.  Kegan Wright grows a variety of crops, known far and wide for their superior taste and quality.  He said Redox technology is important to his success. "I'm running Redox Rx Platinum™ and RootRx®," he said. "And I'll tell you, since I've started running that for my pop-up fertilizer, the whole way through the crop cycle, my plants are healthier. They can handle stress a lot better. I am really liking it and I don't know that I'll ever go away from it. I do have some really good feedback on diKaP™ with our Roma tomatoes, as well." Wright said 16 hour days are typical during much of the year, but farming is a major part of his life and the long workdays are worth it.

Nitrogen is the most widely-used fertilizer in the world, and it makes sense to get the most out of it. RDX Technology from Redox includes the patented and potent biostimulant RDX-N®, along with newly-released RDX-Flex™.  These two products work well throughout the season to get more nitrogen where it counts. RDX technology can lower liquid nitrogen applications by 50% without loss of yield or quality. "You're getting more nitrogen energy utilization moving through that plant," said Redox West VP Jared Sannar. "I don't want to leave out this reduced stress. You measure that through redox potential. There's other ways to measure that where you're reducing after treatment, whether soil applied, research shows and our field experiences, whether it's soil applied or foliar, you are reducing the stress after an application. And that has carry. We've seen this out to 30, 40 days in some crops." Find out more from Sannar and Redox Agronomist A.J. Borges in our latest technical podcast.  Learn more about RDX-Flex here: https://www.redoxgrows.com/news/redox-expands-patented-nitrogen-technology-with-rdx-flex/

Nitrogen makes up the majority of all fertilizer used. Whether good markets or bad, it makes sense to use it wisely.  Southern Idaho grower Shey Taylor is using new technology to cut his synthetic nitrogen use in half, yet maintain or enhance yield and quality this season.  Driving this positive change is RDX-N®, a patented and potent biostimulant that puts more nitrogen to work where it counts- inside the plant. "We could see just from 140 acres last year of applying RDX-N that the bottom line was going to be way higher,"Taylor said. "Applying RDX-N saved us $60 an acre, which is especially helpful in the spring, when we have many expenses out." Taylor said cost saving is crucial to his bottom line, especially consider so many of his inputs have increased in price.  Find out more about RDX-N at https: RedoxGrows.com/product/rdx-n/.

Fertilizer is one of the few inputs growers can control. Farmers need to choose wisely, considering all that is at stake each year.  Redox was founded on strong science and our technology reflects it. We have entered a new era in nitrogen optimization technology, aided by the right team, tools and technology in place, including a new state-of-the-art-lab and a research team complete with three PhDs, Gifford Gillette, Debatosh Das and Karthik Mani.  “There is excitement that comes from discovery, collaboration and science,” said lead researcher, Dr. Gifford Gillette. “That excitement has been just off the charts since we’ve been continuing to add to the scientific credibility here at Redox and the facilities.” RDX technology continues to advance with the addition of RDX-Flex™ for Agriculture and RDX-N10™ for turf, which adds tremendous flexibility for customers in optimizing yield and quality.

Thomas Gallegos has shown incredible perseverance, becoming one of the youngest groundskeepers in all minor league baseball. An injury cut short his baseball career, but Thomas was undaunted. Through hard work and determination, he has risen to become head groundskeeper for the Albuquerque Isotopes AAA baseball team, which is part of the Colorado Rockies’ farm system. There are several major challenges in maintaining their turf grass, including excessive heat and dual uses in the stadium of baseball and soccer. Thomas utilizes Redox TurfRx products with excellent results. “The health of the turf is where it needs to be,” he said. “Moving forward with Redox is the clear choice, an easy answer.”

Manure is a key fertilizer source on millions of acres of crops in the Midwest. While it’s an affordable, nutrient-rich source, it’s not perfect. OsmoFlow® from Redox has been a great addition to many Midwest farms, which helps with several aspects, including relief from multiple stresses to plants. “One of them that comes to mind is just the salt load that comes with it,” said John Parrish, Agronomist and Consultant with Ag Nutrients, who works closely with the Redox Midwest Agronomy Team. “When I say salt, I don't mean sodium specifically. A lot of times that's what it is, but just the concentration or the amount of nutrients. So it's not a uniform source. It does have quite a bit of variability in it and that's where we get that salt load. So now you start to get an elevated level of that nutrient and we start to see plant stresses from it.” Parrish said OsmoFlow has been a key factor in minimizing stress, keeping plants in balance, and maximizing yield and quality.    “OsmoFlow is a biostimulant surfactant designed to help with three different stresses,” he said. “When you apply it soil based, you're looking at trying to, I'm going to say inactivate or reduce that charge, that positive charge most of the time in the soil and help flush it out. And now we're going to start to build soil structure. There's some other properties that are going to help us build that soil structure and that's going to help us start to, release that water easier for that plant to get. The neat part about it is it also works in the plant with the RAM technology that's in there. Now we can start to balance that charge in the plant and that plant can actually help us through this stressor.” Find out more about how OsmoFlow can help your farm, here: https://www.redoxgrows.com/product/osmoflow/.

The Midwest has long been a farming powerhouse, including productive corn and soybean fields as far as the eye can see.  At the second annual XPRT Farm Field Day in Missouri Valley, Iowa, growers and industry members gathered to see crops powered by Redox and hear about the decades of science that backs this successful agronomy.  “The difference that Redox is making in the Midwest is absolutely tremendous,” said Redox Agronomist Zach Carlson. “It has absolutely been adopted very, very quickly.” One attendee was Tom Haase with TN Ag in Nebraska, a grower, crop advisor and distributor. A top priority is increasing efficiency with nitrogen. “The more money we can save the farmer, the more return on investment he has on the field.” A key component to better optimizing nitrogen, which has multiple benefits, is the breakthrough product, RDX-N®, a patented and potent biostimulant that took years to perfect.   Grower Chris Duffy in New York also attended the field day. He said he has significantly increased his use of Redox products, and the results to date have been very promising. “Soil health starts with having a healthy plant,” remarked Kelly Roder of Green Key Ag in Iowa. Roder and Noah Fedders from Green Key were also on hand. “A healthier plant means the less fertilizer used, because we are mineralizing better. It’s a spiral up verses a spiral down.” Find out more about the 500-acre XPRT Farm at redoxgrows.com/xprt/.

Mel Machado, Chief Agricultural Officer at Blue Diamond Growers, has seen a lot of change in his nearly 35 years working for the cooperative. Since he started, the statewide crop has more than tripled in acreage, and has grown into California’s second biggest ag commodity. Harvest is underway, and Machado spends virtually every day, traveling throughout the Central Valley visiting with their 3,000 growers and checking crop progress. The current forecast is for 2.7 billion pounds shelled, which would be very close to the 2025 harvest. While harvest is all encompassing, the almond industry has made steady progress in sustainability, refining crucial areas like water use efficiency, habitat management and getting the most from crop nutrition. Machado said this is his dream job.  “I get to work with an amazing group of people around the valley,” he said. “The best decision I ever made was to come to Blue Diamond.” Find out more at bluediamondgrowers.com.

Idaho’s Palouse Region is off the beaten path for many, but it’s where a significant impact is made to help keep farmers productive and consumers well-fed.   With a storied history dating back to the 19th century, the University is Idaho is one of the nation’s premier public research institutions.  Redox was provided a campus tour, including the Soil Stewards Farm and Deep Soil Ecotron. "Collectively together we have the opportunity to really lean in and make sure that we're providing as your land grant university the research that's needed to help our producers be successful," remarked Leslie Edgar, J.R. Simplot Endowed  Dean of the University of Idaho's College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.  Find out more about the University of Idaho and how it helps farm productivity at uidaho.edu/cals.

Specialty crop growers on the California Coast operate with elevated risk.  Many facets of farming are out of a grower’s control. Chris Oliva is Key Accounts and Southern Sales Manager for AgRx, a leading independent supplier of traditional and organic crop protection and nutrient products, including Redox Bio-Nutrients technology.  He said coastal growers face stringent regulation, high land prices and volatile markets, so sound agronomic decisions are a necessity. "I've known these families all my life," Oliva said. "There is a special bond. When we come to them with a product, they trust that this product is going to get them the results that they want."  Find out more at AgRx.com.