ASHBURTON VENTURES INC. (ABR-TSX:V) (ARB-FRANKFURT) (“Ashburton” or the "Company”) is pleased to announce the completion of comparative analysis of all remaining data sets from Ashburton’s study of cannabis grown with zeolite from the Z-1 Zeolite Quarry near Cache Creek, BC. The study concludes that zeolite energizes soils with a negative electrical charge that activates nutrient uptake.
Results indicate that benefits of zeolite enrichment to overall marijuana harvested (7% average weight increase per plant) and total cannabinoid potency (110% average increase) is caused by superior nutrient uptake among plants grown with Z-1 Zeolite.
According to biologist Albert Kasprowicz, operations manager at the Salt Spring Island cannabis research facility, “In plants grown without zeolite, higher levels of essential elements remained in the soil, not accessed by plant roots. However, in the zeolite and zeolite-carbon groups, the numbers tell a different story: nutrient levels drop rapidly in the soil following irrigation with dissolved ionic elements. Those disappeared nutrients then reappear in elevated concentrations in leaf tissue. We can associate zeolite and zeolite-carbon blends with improved transport of nutrients from soil to plant tissue, which in turn allows plants to metabolize more of the basic building blocks of marijuana. This explains the remarkable rise in marijuana quality and yields that we observed in our study.”
Kasprowicz proposed that the mechanism of action improving nutrient transport involves zeolite’s negative electrical charge, which increases a soil’s “cation exchange capacity,” the ability of soil to pass positively-charged ionic nutrients into root tissue. Cannabis root hairs achieve nutrient transport by cation exchange, assisted by the process of “active transport,” whereby the organic chemical ATP (adenosine triphosphate) supplies energy for molecular pumps that pull ions across cell membranes. Z-1 Zeolite naturally contains exchangeable potassium ions, ensuring that plants are well-supplied with the element necessary to maximize the production of ATP and thus accelerate nutrient transport.
“The effect is that zeolite first captures nutrients from fertilizers, and then creates a push-pull relationship with the plant roots to propel those elements into plant cells,” Kasprowicz explained.
He continued, “It is tremendously important to the marijuana cultivator that cannabis be grown in soils that promote nutrient uptake. Zeolite’s negative charge supplies energy for a nutrient-transport engine built right into the soil.”
Ashburton is currently in discussions with a manufacturer of pre-mixed soils for the cannabis industry.
