Jayson Ryner, founder and CEO of ReEnvision Ag and entrepreneurship professor at NIACC, explains the Seed Spike planter—the first ultra–low soil disturbance planter built for the soil-health era.
How Seed Spike Works
Ryner explains how the simple “poke-and-place” mechanism lets farmers plant earlier with less power, improves emergence and spacing, and thrives in no-till and plasticulture conditions where traditional double-disk openers struggle. He shares why ReEnvision Ag is wedging into market gardens and commercial vegetables first—where labor is scarce and time savings are quantifiable—while building toward broader row-crop adoption.
ReEnvision Ag has first paying customers, defensible IP (an issued U.S. utility patent on the two-pin spike mechanism), third-party validation from an Iowa State study showing more even emergence, and is raising $1M to commercialize.
Ryner also paints a vision for precision ag: because Seed Spike geo-locates every seed, future AI tools can “know” cash crop positions, reduce compute for see-and-spray, cut herbicide and fertilizer use, and enable early robotic weeding—even pre-emergence. With dramatically lower horsepower needs, small electric robots or sub-100HP tractors can plant 12-row units without compacting soil, protecting Iowa’s most valuable resource: its topsoil.
Long-term, Ryner sees licensing or an OEM exit once product-market fit and sales are proven via paid trials, leases, and a dealer network. Want to see it in action or connect as an investor or grower? Visit reinvisionag.com and follow ReEnvision Ag on Facebook and YouTube.