Agricultural compositions and methods for the delivery of plant health-promoting microbes

An agricultural composition for delivering microbes to plants comprising:

• an agriculturally acceptable granular carrier comprising about 80% to about 99.9% one or more milled plant parts (w/w), about 0.1% to about 20% biological viability compounds (w/w) by total weight of the granular carrier, said granular carrier comprising about 15% moisture and a size range of about 1 mm to about 10 mm;
• and
• at least one live microbe selected from the group consisting of a nitrogen-fixing microbe;
• a phosphate solubilizing microbe;
• and a biological control microbe active against soil-borne plant pathogens;
• wherein the one or more milled plant parts are selected from at least one crop plant selected from the group consisting of pea, lentil, chickpea, faba bean, soybean, alfalfa, canola, mustard, flax, cotton, wheat, barley, corn, oat, rice, and sorghum;
• wherein the one or more milled plant parts are hulls, straw, and/or screenings from the at least one crop plant;
• and
• wherein at least one biological viability compound is selected from the group consisting of sucrose, maltose, lactose, trehalose, yeast extract, sorbitol, glycerol, mannitol, inositol, methionine, cysteine, homocysteine, and taurine,
• wherein the microbe does not have more than a 1-log loss in titer over a one-month period below about 20% moisture (w/w), and
• wherein the microbe doubles in titer over a one-week period above about 50% moisture (w/w).