Enhancing Agrichemical Delivery and Seedling Development with Biodegradable, Tunable, Biopolymer-Based Nanofiber Seed Coatings

One of the challenges in agriculture consists of the inefficiencies in agrichemical delivery and utilization. Herein, a biodegradable, tunable, biopolymer-based nanoplatform was developed as seed coating to enhance agrichemical delivery and seedling development. The nanofibers are synthesized using electrospinning of biopolymer blends without any toxic chemicals or post-treatment and enable tunable agrichemical release by modulating the polymer composition and hydrophilicity of nanofibers. The germination and subsequent growth of different nanofiber-coated seeds (tomato and lettuce) as a function of agrichemical release kinetics were investigated in greenhouse studies, in the presence or absence of a fungal pathogen (Fusarium species). Results from the greenhouse studies indicate the efficacy of such nanoenabled seed coating approach due to the precise delivery of agrichemical at the right place while utilizing a miniscule amount of agrichemical. The various Cu-release nanofiber coatings appeared to promote seed germination, particularly in the diseased media conditions. This more rapid germination led to increased seedling biomass for both plants (12-29%) in the healthy media conditions. Such seed nanocoating approach might be used in pathogen infested soil conditions to increase production yields. The developed nanofiber seed coating approach brings precision to agrichemical delivery and significantly improves germination and seedling biomass for model seeds compared to conventional film coating approaches utilized by the industry, owing to its unique nanofibrous structure and controlled release kinetics.