Growing a large amount of food that is both safe to eat and profitable to sell is no easy task. To make it easier, many farmers resort to human-made fertilizers that, despite harmful impacts, can often juice up their crop yield.

What if there was a way to safely grow healthy food in large quantities? Well, research shows that natural fertilizer alternatives are out there — and they work better than expected, according to Anthropocene Magazine.

The study, conducted by a team at the University of Ferrara in Italy, examined how well tomato plants grew when treated with these biofertilizers and biostimulants. The researchers tested two types of microbial biofertilizers alongside a control group, then applied two concentrations of an algae-based biostimulant with a control group.

The plants treated with a mycorrhizae-forming fungus and bacteria grew the biggest, had the strongest roots, and produced the largest and sweetest tomatoes. This group demonstrated improved outcomes when treated with a higher concentration of biostimulant, producing more tomatoes per vine and redder and more marketable tomatoes.

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