Abstract: The subject matter comprises shaped mixtures of valuable materials for the stimulation and cultivation of plant growth, said materials containing plant nutrients and/or plant-protective agents in admixture with a thermoplastic binder. According to the invention the mixtures of valuable materials, which mixtures have in particular been shaped as fertilizer rods, are characterized in that they contain, as the binder, a starch that has been thermomechanically digested at elevated pressures and temperatures.The invention further relates to the process for producing these multi-component mixtures and to the use of thermomechanically digested starch, optionally in admixture with inferior amounts of further biologically compatible binder components, as a biologically degradable binder for mixtures of valuable materials of the type described.

Abstract: Disclosed are materials and/or shaped articles based on a starch which has been thermomechanically digested at elevated pressures and temperatures and with the addition of water and/or lower molecular weight plasticizing agents, said starch containing thermoplastic synthetic polymer compounds in an at least largely homogeneous mixture. The materials and/or shaped articles according to the invention are characterized in that their contents of synthetic thermoplastic polymer compounds is derived from aqueous polymer dispersions comprising a disperse polymer phase in an aqueous phase and that the synthetic thermoplastic polymer compounds have been incorporated in the starch in combination with the aqueous phase in such a manner that the starch digestion has been effected by the concomitant use of the aqueous phase of the polymer dispersions.