Susteed® brings together the best of biologicals and seed treatments

In the SeedGrowth business at Bayer, we pride ourselves on innovation. And it’s always an exciting moment when we can announce new products – such as Ibisio®, which received its first approval last year. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. Because innovation is a matter of quality, not quantity. We shouldn’t judge ourselves by the sheer number of new solutions we release, but on the combined value they deliver to farmers, making a difference to their lived experiences.

That’s why we are pleased to introduce our new biological seed treatment, Susteed. It breaks the boundaries between typical product categories to be a comprehensive difference-maker for growers. It’s new, and at the same time familiar, based on a proven active ingredient but finding new ways for it to perform in the field. And it brings value not just on its own, but also in combination with other seed treatments and agricultural inputs.

This article briefly sets out what Susteed is, why we’re excited about it, and its wider significance for SeedGrowth.

Agricultural biologicals are often grouped into two main categories: biocontrol products (which act somewhat like conventional crop protection, protecting plants against the threats posed by pests or diseases), and biostimulants or crop performance enhancers (which are more akin to fertilizers, enhancing plant growth, performance and stress tolerance). Susteed is being registered as a fungicidal product, but that’s not the whole story: it’s also part of its modes of action to promote plant processes that enable better root growth and nutrient uptake. So, in the farmer’s eyes, it doesn’t just stick to its category but makes positive contributions across the board.

To explain why, we’ll summarize the history of Susteed and its active ingredient, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain QST713. This bacterial ally is well known to the scientific community – in fact, at Bayer we have already been testing and working with it for over 25 years, and it is found in our established foliar-applied biological fungicide, Serenade ASO. That’s not to say Serenade ASO and Susteed are identical, however. Susteed’s formulation has been rigorously tested and optimized for seed treatment application, with a higher concentration, more spore content, lower application volume, and greater root colonization power.

The active ingredient was originally known for its fungicidal activity – and Susteed delivers this, particularly against the Rhizoctonia and Phoma pathogens. Over time and in various trials, we discovered another benefit: plant roots that come into contact with Susteed experience greater biomass (including higher root density, more lateral roots and longer root hairs), helping the plant absorb more nutrients and withstand environmental stresses such as drought.

Overall, Susteed has three modes of action: blocking out diseases below ground, inducing systemic resistance (so the plant can better defend itself above ground), and colonizing roots to support nutrient access and root growth.

Disease control and a plant performance boost, all in one precisely and conveniently applied solution – one that also handles exceptionally well and has very good stability. Susteed doesn’t just do one thing well; it offers a whole package of benefits. And that’s something we can be excited about.

Seed treatments and biologicals are two different, but closely related, technology areas. They both have the potential to make a big contribution to meeting society’s sustainable ambitions for agricultural inputs, through maximizing the use of nature-derived ingredients and through targeted and low-volume application.

At Bayer, we have brought our SeedGrowth and biologicals businesses close together within our organization, and we have been jointly innovating in the two areas for some time. Now, we’re approaching the most important point so far in that journey: the point where our innovation becomes tangible to growers, as we offer a wide range of biological seed treatments in our current portfolio.

For now, we’ll keep working to get Susteed through regulatory processes. We have just received the first registration, for OSR and vegetable seeds in Belgium, but that’s not the end of the story: many other countries should follow in the remainder of the year.