Fertilaid
Encyclopedia
Fertilaid, was one of the first organically certified
fertilizer
s acknowledged by the California Certification of Organics , in 1979. A nation-wide process for certification did not begin to exist in the United States
until 1990 per the National Organic Food Act. Previous to that, Fertilaid was awarded, in January 1954, its first Patent Office
Citation.
This product was developed by John C. Porter, Sr., (b. 1909 – d. 2008), with his wife Fedil C. Porter (b._) at his side. Mr. Porter, who was a visionary
agronomist
and soil chemist, made products based on the philosophy
that one works with nature
, not against it; therefore, since soil is naturally made
, it should be healed by understanding nature's processes and then assisted and supported with naturally-made products. As far back as the 1950s, the Porters stood openly and publicly against the excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticide
s derived from petrochemical
s.
Long years of research yielded a comprehensive program that demonstrated the ability to enhance the soil’s fertility
while improving crop yield
s without cost to the environment. Fertilaid research reports from Texas A&M University
, other leading universities and colleges, as well as documented research projects conducted by the Rockefeller Foundation
, Tracor
, the National Coffee Commission, Eli Lily and others; time and time again announced Fertilaid’s superior crop growth and fruit quality. For example, in 1970, a winning corn test pilot in Iowa
found corn grown by Fertilaid was untouched by the blight
that was significant to that area, and it helped produce a crop increase from 55 to 105 bushels per acre – without the use of harmful chemicals!
Fertilaid came in various formulations specifically tailored for production of fruit
s and vegetable
s, root crops such as carrot
s and potato
es, floriculture
, lawn/garden/house plants, and turf grass
applications. It was a proven bio-organic
catalyst
that improves plant and fruit quality in virtually any soil condition.
FertiGro, created by Mr. Porter’s son, John V. Porter (b.) who worked for the family business since he was a boy, was a blended array of Fertilaid and other nutrient
s. This formulation helped the plant more efficiently utilize chemical nutrients, and was used for cereal grains, broad-leaf vegetables and commercial turf grass. FertiGro also came as a folliculor spray that was less expensive for large-scale applications, has reduced volatile
s into the atmosphere, and was proven to not leach into the water table
.
The growth and crop quality benefits of these natural products were further enhanced by their safety. There were no worries about chemical residues on food crops, or toxic build up on soil. As a matter of fact, they believed that in the future, it could even be engineered to degrade existing residues of pesticides, herbicide
s and other toxins. It was a natural way to help growers the world over, to get the highest yields year after year, without the introduction of hazardous compounds
to the environment
.
Fertilaid products were manufactured in facilities in South Texas
, Central Texas
, the Gulf Coast of Texas, and in the state of Louisiana
- but utilized all around the world. These unique products have traveled the globe bringing bounty to barrenness, including Philippines
, Taiwan
, China
, Japan
, Korea
, India
, United Arab Emirates
, Mexico
, the United States of America to name a few
March 16, 1973, The Austin
Citizen newspaper wrote that Fertiliad, “… will result in sweeping changes to the growing systems of the smallest gardener to the largest farmer. Lush greens on harsh desert, hard clay, or alkaline soils and the sudden halt to some serious agricultural problems – namely compaction, excess salinity
and deletion of necessary humus – have caused a great deal of command about the remarkable Fertilaid Organic Activator.”
Production of Fertilaid ended in 1992, due to an attempted hostile takeover.
Organic certification
Organic certification is a certification process for producers of organic food and other organic agricultural products. In general, any business directly involved in food production can be certified, including seed suppliers, farmers, [food] processors, retailers and restaurants.Requirements vary...
fertilizer
Fertilizer
Fertilizer is any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin that is added to a soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. A recent assessment found that about 40 to 60% of crop yields are attributable to commercial fertilizer use...
s acknowledged by the California Certification of Organics , in 1979. A nation-wide process for certification did not begin to exist in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
until 1990 per the National Organic Food Act. Previous to that, Fertilaid was awarded, in January 1954, its first Patent Office
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
Citation.
This product was developed by John C. Porter, Sr., (b. 1909 – d. 2008), with his wife Fedil C. Porter (b._) at his side. Mr. Porter, who was a visionary
Visionary
Defined broadly, a visionary, is one who can envision the future. For some groups this can involve the supernatural or drugs.The visionary state is achieved via meditation, drugs, lucid dreams, daydreams, or art. One example is Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th century artist/visionary and Catholic saint...
agronomist
Agronomist
An agronomist is a scientist who specializes in agronomy, which is the science of utilizing plants for food, fuel, feed, and fiber. An agronomist is an expert in agricultural and allied sciences, with the exception veterinary sciences.Agronomists deal with interactions between plants, soils, and...
and soil chemist, made products based on the philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
that one works with nature
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
, not against it; therefore, since soil is naturally made
Natural environment
The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....
, it should be healed by understanding nature's processes and then assisted and supported with naturally-made products. As far back as the 1950s, the Porters stood openly and publicly against the excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticide
Pesticide
Pesticides are substances or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest.A pesticide may be a chemical unicycle, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest...
s derived from petrochemical
Petrochemical
Petrochemicals are chemical products derived from petroleum. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sources such as corn or sugar cane....
s.
Long years of research yielded a comprehensive program that demonstrated the ability to enhance the soil’s fertility
Fertility
Fertility is the natural capability of producing offsprings. As a measure, "fertility rate" is the number of children born per couple, person or population. Fertility differs from fecundity, which is defined as the potential for reproduction...
while improving crop yield
Crop yield
In agriculture, crop yield is not only a measure of the yield of cereal per unit area of land under cultivation, yield is also the seed generation of the plant itself...
s without cost to the environment. Fertilaid research reports from Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas . It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The sixth-largest university in the United States, A&M's enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 for the first time in school...
, other leading universities and colleges, as well as documented research projects conducted by the Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
, Tracor
Tracor
Tracor was a major North American defense electronics contractor which was acquired by Marconi Electronic Systems , a subsidiary of General Electric Company plc, in 1998. Following the purchase of MES by British Aerospace in November 1999 to form BAE Systems, Tracor became BAE Systems Integrated...
, the National Coffee Commission, Eli Lily and others; time and time again announced Fertilaid’s superior crop growth and fruit quality. For example, in 1970, a winning corn test pilot in Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
found corn grown by Fertilaid was untouched by the blight
Blight
Blight refers to a specific symptom affecting plants in response to infection by a pathogenic organism. It is simply a rapid and complete chlorosis, browning, then death of plant tissues such as leaves, branches, twigs, or floral organs. Accordingly, many diseases that primarily exhibit this...
that was significant to that area, and it helped produce a crop increase from 55 to 105 bushels per acre – without the use of harmful chemicals!
Fertilaid came in various formulations specifically tailored for production of fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
s and vegetable
Vegetable
The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....
s, root crops such as carrot
Carrot
The carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange in colour, though purple, red, white, and yellow varieties exist. It has a crisp texture when fresh...
s and potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
es, floriculture
Floriculture
Floriculture, or flower farming, is a discipline of horticulture concerned with the cultivation of flowering and ornamental plants for gardens and for floristry, comprising the floral industry...
, lawn/garden/house plants, and turf grass
Lawn
A lawn is an area of aesthetic and recreational land planted with grasses or other durable plants, which usually are maintained at a low and consistent height. Low ornamental meadows in natural landscaping styles are a contemporary option of a lawn...
applications. It was a proven bio-organic
Bioorganic chemistry
Bioorganic chemistry is a rapidly growing scientific discipline that combines organic chemistry and biochemistry. While biochemistry aims at understanding biological processes using chemistry, bioorganic chemistry attempts to expand organic-chemical researches toward biology...
catalyst
Catalysis
Catalysis is the change in rate of a chemical reaction due to the participation of a substance called a catalyst. Unlike other reagents that participate in the chemical reaction, a catalyst is not consumed by the reaction itself. A catalyst may participate in multiple chemical transformations....
that improves plant and fruit quality in virtually any soil condition.
FertiGro, created by Mr. Porter’s son, John V. Porter (b.) who worked for the family business since he was a boy, was a blended array of Fertilaid and other nutrient
Nutrient
A nutrient is a chemical that an organism needs to live and grow or a substance used in an organism's metabolism which must be taken in from its environment. They are used to build and repair tissues, regulate body processes and are converted to and used as energy...
s. This formulation helped the plant more efficiently utilize chemical nutrients, and was used for cereal grains, broad-leaf vegetables and commercial turf grass. FertiGro also came as a folliculor spray that was less expensive for large-scale applications, has reduced volatile
Volatility (chemistry)
In chemistry and physics, volatility is the tendency of a substance to vaporize. Volatility is directly related to a substance's vapor pressure. At a given temperature, a substance with higher vapor pressure vaporizes more readily than a substance with a lower vapor pressure.The term is primarily...
s into the atmosphere, and was proven to not leach into the water table
Water table
The water table is the level at which the submarine pressure is far from atmospheric pressure. It may be conveniently visualized as the 'surface' of the subsurface materials that are saturated with groundwater in a given vicinity. However, saturated conditions may extend above the water table as...
.
The growth and crop quality benefits of these natural products were further enhanced by their safety. There were no worries about chemical residues on food crops, or toxic build up on soil. As a matter of fact, they believed that in the future, it could even be engineered to degrade existing residues of pesticides, herbicide
Herbicide
Herbicides, also commonly known as weedkillers, are pesticides used to kill unwanted plants. Selective herbicides kill specific targets while leaving the desired crop relatively unharmed. Some of these act by interfering with the growth of the weed and are often synthetic "imitations" of plant...
s and other toxins. It was a natural way to help growers the world over, to get the highest yields year after year, without the introduction of hazardous compounds
Hazardous waste
A hazardous waste is waste that poses substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment. According to the U.S. environmental laws hazardous wastes fall into two major categories: characteristic wastes and listed wastes.Characteristic hazardous wastes are materials that are known...
to the environment
Natural environment
The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....
.
Fertilaid products were manufactured in facilities in South Texas
South Texas
South Texas is a region of the U.S. state of Texas that lies roughly south of and including San Antonio. The southern and western boundary is the Rio Grande River, and to the east it is the Gulf of Mexico. The population of this region is about 3.7 million. The southern portion of this region is...
, Central Texas
Central Texas
Central Texas , is a region in the U.S. state of Texas. It is roughly bordered by San Marcos to Fredericksburg to Waco, and to Brenham, and includes the Austin–Round Rock, Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, Bryan-College Station, and Waco metropolitan areas...
, the Gulf Coast of Texas, and in the state of Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
- but utilized all around the world. These unique products have traveled the globe bringing bounty to barrenness, including Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, the United States of America to name a few
March 16, 1973, The Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
Citizen newspaper wrote that Fertiliad, “… will result in sweeping changes to the growing systems of the smallest gardener to the largest farmer. Lush greens on harsh desert, hard clay, or alkaline soils and the sudden halt to some serious agricultural problems – namely compaction, excess salinity
Salinity
Salinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water. It is a general term used to describe the levels of different salts such as sodium chloride, magnesium and calcium sulfates, and bicarbonates...
and deletion of necessary humus – have caused a great deal of command about the remarkable Fertilaid Organic Activator.”
Production of Fertilaid ended in 1992, due to an attempted hostile takeover.