Corn, Soybeans Potential Ingredients In New Plastic Pots

Nov 29, 2016

In a greenhouse at Iowa State University, tomatoes and salvia grow in pots made from bioplastics.

The corn and soybeans so abundant in Iowa could someday replace many of the plastic pots and flats at your local garden shop.

Researchers at Iowa State University set about to create pots for plants that were not made from petroleum products and that could biodegrade. They started with a corn-based bioplastic and tried a number of different formulas. Some of those included a polymer made from soybeans.

"The plastics that had a soy component were consistently leading to plants with darker green leaves or to growth that was enhanced compared to containers that didn't include a soy component," says Bill Graves, an ISU horticulture professor and associate dean of the graduate college. He says further study revealed that microbes from the plant and soil placed in the pot worked to release pent-up nutrients in the soy ingredient.

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During the growing season of 2023 as summer turned into fall, the Rural Routes to Climate Solutions podcast and Regeneration Canada were on the final leg of the Stories of Regeneration tour. After covering most of the Prairies and most of central and eastern Canada in the summer, our months-long journey came to an end in Canada’s two most western provinces around harvest time.

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