Emmanuel Richard

Stress is one of the major limitations to crop growing worldwide. As crop growers and crop input consultants, knowing how to manage crop stress by utilizing macro/micro nutrients and plant growth hormones (PGH) is important. The right combination of Macro/micro nutrients & PGH’s can be used to help the crop develop tolerance to prevailing stress conditions. This will further help to alleviate the adverse effect of stress on the crops.

There is no de facto way of managing crop stress. Depending on the type of stress, the crop, crop stage (timing) and other biotic and abiotic factors, a combination of remedial approaches might be necessary to trigger certain responds by the crop to overcome stress. These include but are not limited to the following mechanism:

• Improved root growth to increase the uptake of water which helps in stomata regulation.
• Maintaining high tissue water potential.
• Improved stress tolerance by osmotic adjustment.
• Activating the physiological, biochemical and metabolic processes in the Crop.

Reactive oxygen species and crop stress.

Crops respond to stress i.e drought, water-logging, frost damage, hail damage pest winter cropping conditions etc. in a similar fashion by increased generation of reactive oxygen species aka (ROS). This increase is as a result of the accumulation of energy in stressed crop. The accumulation of energy increases photo-oxidation and damages the chloroplast membrane. Most of the activities initiated by the increase in ROS during stressful conditions are toxic and hence detrimental to the crops.

Foliar application of the right crop health nutrients, at the right timing and concentration will help the crop trigger activities that will increase the concentration of antioxidants such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), Catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POD) in the plant cells. These antioxidants will help decrease the ROS levels, reduce the photo-oxidation and help maintain the integrity of chloroplast membrane. These activities will then lead to an increase in the photosynthetic rate in the crop thus, making the crop more stress tolerant.

N:B. Nothing replaces water by rainfall or irrigation. Our protocols are only meant to give the crops tolerance to water unavailability.

Talk to our certified crop science consultant for details on right crop health therapy combination that would trigger the right mechanism to alleviate your crop’s  stress.

Emmanuel Richard

Building Bushels with any crop starts with prompt seed germination, establishment of vigorous roots systems and uniform crop emergence. If one or all of the above are hindered by any sort of crop stress (drought, frost or pest), the crop would be off to a poor start and thus unable to maximize its yield potential.

There are a number of plant growth hormones (PGH) that are active at different crop growth stages. These include but are not limited to the following: Auxins, Cytokinins, Giberellic acid, Ethylene and Abscisic acid. These hormones help the plant initiate various growth activities such as root developments (ratio dependent), shoot development (ratio dependent), cell sizing, fruit development/ripening and maturity respectively.

As a crop develops, there should be a balance of the right plant growth hormone (PGH) and Macro/Micro nutrients at strategic crop growth stages. These Macro/Micro nutrients serve as ‘helpers’ (co-factors) that enables the plant hormones carry out their specific function(s). Some of these co-factors have also been linked to providing energy to the crop at different crop growth stages. When the crop goes into maturity the level of abscisic acid (ABS) increases. This means that levels of ABS will also be high in the harvested seed.

Since harvested seed have high levels of ABS, at seeding, the seeds are in the state of dormancy due to high ABS levels from harvesting. For germination to occur, the ABS levels in the seed has to be reduced. Although seeds have a natural pathway to achieve this, a lot of external factors such as soil nutrient composition, soil pH & moisture and soil temperature can interfere with the seeds natural pathway which can lead to poor germination. It is important to input Intelligence to the seed externally via seed priming or In-furrow application of the right combination of PGH’s and Co-factors. This will help reduce the seeds ABS levels and thus, give the seed the extra push it needs during its germination stage to become a vigorous & healthy crop. This, in simple terms, describes the bio-chemical process of seed germination.

As Crop growers & their agronomist plan for a seed treatment product(s), the following questions should be asked:

• Is it cost effective?
• Does the product help reduce the ABS levels while taking into consideration prevailing environmental stress factors during seeding?
• Is it easy to handle (Compatible with other crop inputs & Non- precipitating)?
• Is the product Customized to your crop growing needs?
• Does it input intelligence to your seed?

Crop differently by visiting our Url: www.greenchemcanada.com, following us on twitter or Facebook or contacting our Certified Crop Science Consultant toll free @ 1-(855)-205-8592 for more research based information and updates on crop health inputs.