Seedballs
SETs enabled the 100-acre family farm of 1950 to become the million-acre megafarm of 2023:
SETs revolutionized agriculture.
Pioneering SETs for ecological restoration: the basics
Each seed is wrapped in a multi-layer coating of optimized nutrients and hydrogel for moisture-retention as well as growth-promoting and disease-resistant inoculants to protect the seeds from their greatest threats: pathogens, predators, and dehydration.
This structure also houses the radicle as it emerges from the seed and begins growing inside the pod, providing critical protection at a vulnerable stage.
These pelleting techniques also create a uniformity in size which allow us to mass disperse them from drones in pre-programmed planting patterns by the thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands.
Come back in April 2026 for our most successful recipe.
From Lab to Landscape
In addition to inoculants we also utilize biologically active amendments, often sourced from the rhizos wild stands of the species we are planting, verified microscopically for biomass, diversity, presence of protozoa, nematodes, and fungus. Compost extracts are then formulated, also assessed with microscope, and refined in-house, ensuring that what we apply to the land is biologically rich and aligned with site goals. Aerial delivery then allows us to translate lab-verified biology into field-scale impact.
Inoculants
Inoculation is another important enhancement. It involves film-coating the seeds with a layer of beneficial microorganisms and fungi to integrate the emerging root with the living soil, where complex exchanges and communication networks enhance growth. These microorganisms (BMOs) can be gathered directly from soil at the restoration site and reproduced at our SRF facility. This process ensures no invasive microbial or fungal species are introduced into the soil and integrates the plants with their ecosystem from the start.
Stratification, scarification, and additional enhancement strategies can all be tailored to the specific variables of the species, the soil, and the micro-climate to achieve the highest germination rate possible.
Ecoballs: the key to large-scale restoration
Ecoballs contain the seeds of an entire ecosystem from grasses, shrubs, and understory up to the canopy of the dominant species. An ecoball may have anywhere from 10-100 seeds inside it. Every seed in an ecoball is native to that ecosystem and works symbiotically with the other seeds, the fungi, and the microbial life in the soil to regenerate entire ecosystems.
Ecoballs: the key to large-scale restoration
Ecoballs contain the seeds of an entire ecosystem from grasses, shrubs, and understory up to the canopy of the dominant species. An ecoball may have anywhere from 10-100 seeds inside it. Every seed in an ecoball is native to that ecosystem and works symbiotically with the other seeds, the fungi, and the microbial life in the soil to regenerate entire ecosystems.
Ecoballs: the key to large-scale restoration
Ecoballs contain the seeds of an entire ecosystem from grasses, shrubs, and understory up to the canopy of the dominant species. An ecoball may have anywhere from 10-100 seeds inside it. Every seed in an ecoball is native to that ecosystem and works symbiotically with the other seeds, the fungi, and the microbial life in the soil to regenerate entire ecosystems.
A word about Fungi
Fungi often live inside the plant and are as much a part of the plant as roots, branches, or leaves. It also functions as an essential trading partner whose body extends from inside the plant deep into the soil, delivering water and minerals to the plant in return for sugars and carbohydrates created by photosynthesis brought down from the leaves. Fungi also function as a communication network for the ecosystem as a whole and deliver infochemicals – messages – in real time.
New View:
Plant-fungal associations are more than associations. Fungi often live inside the tissue and cell interiors so densely that it is more accurate to say fungi and plants “inter-are.” In fact, it’s not uncommon for there to be more fungus than plant inside the plant.
This concept of nested biomes exists throughout the natural world. (Think of our own body: our gut microbiome is nested inside us, and neither can live without the other.) In the natural world the inseparability of nested biomes are the norm. Inter-being does not only keep natural systems functioning; it is how natural systems function optimally. We inter-are with our environment just as our gut microbiome inter-is with us. All living beings and natural systems on Earth have co-evolved into nested biomes interbeing with each other.
Interbeing: how everything really (inter)is.
