Harvest Components: The Use Of Biostimulants

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Read the previous part. ← The components of the harvest: the use of hybrids and the fight against plant diseases

Big Tony F1 Pepper Hybrid

In our climatic conditions, one cannot do without biostimulants, there are many of them on sale, but I want to dwell on the well-known tree-like aloe (Alo e arborescens).

At one time, Academician VP Filatov discovered that in the tissues that are "near death", in the struggle for life, special substances are produced - biogenic stimulants that affect growth, wound healing, destruction of bacteria and contribute to the healing of organisms.

Usually, cut aloe leaves are kept for 20 days in the dark at a temperature (+ 7 ° C), you can also use fresh juice. Add a few drops of juice to the 0.5L irrigation water and it even helps to grow healthy seedlings.

Of course, now there are many different industrial preparations, they should be used in our conditions, but it is imperative to observe the application rates. Here, our Russian attitude: you cannot spoil porridge with butter, it does not work, on the contrary, more - worse. Because the same substances in some quantities act as a stimulant, in others as an inhibitor.

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Recently, a number of microbial phytoregulators of complex action have appeared on the market, such as Nikfan, Symbiont-1, Epistim and others. The popular drug "Ovary", a product of the fungus Gibberella fujikuroi, a phytohormone, has proven itself well to accelerate the formation of ovaries. Their essence is the same - they regulate the entire cycle of plant development, and unfavorable external factors disrupt the normal physiology of the plant, so you have to resort to "helpers". There are many trade names for "helpers" now, but the active ingredients are the same.

The process is not induced by, say, one cytokinin or auxin: only a certain combination of these hormones leads to active cell division. The gardener can only understand the instructions attached to them. When treated with hormones, the flowering of many plants is accelerated, and in these processes cytokinins act only in conjunction with gibberellins. Unfavorable environmental factors - drought, flooding, low temperatures, salinity drastically slow down the flow of cytokinins into the aboveground organs with sap.

As a result, the shoots slow down growth, the leaves quickly age. Treatment of plants under stress with drugs containing cytokinins significantly improves their condition and eliminates adverse effects. Cytokinins can be used to inhibit aging, to increase plant resistance to unfavorable environmental factors, to shift the severity of sex to the female side.

The phytohormone auxin plays a significant role. It occurs in plants as indolyl-tri-acetic acid (IAA) and its derivatives. The survival rate of plants in a new place depends on the rate of restoration of the root system. Relief of a stressful situation is possible against the background of the use of growth regulators, in particular, preparations containing auxins. Although, many modern vegetable hybrids do not require additional stimulation, using the power of heterosis, but on old varieties they justify themselves.

Strengthening in plants, under the influence of the applied growth regulators, of some functions as a result of diverse correlative relationships between tissues and organs can lead to oppression of others, this should also be taken into account: do no harm.

A few words can be said about the legendary drug Symbiont-1 (a growth-regulating drug that, in addition to stimulating properties, has the ability to reduce the development of diseases) - this is a special class of substances. In those days, in order to combat drought, it was decided to plant forest belts in the steppe at the direction of J. V. Stalin. But the trouble is that forest trees do not grow in the steppe, and Lysenko's recommendations did not work: to plant trees using the square-nesting method, and the times were cool - Stalin's.

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Fanya Yurievna Geltser

Salvation came from Williams' student - F. Yu. Geltser, her steppe grew not just a forest, but a mushroom forest. She "infected" pine and oak seedlings before planting with pure cultures of white fungus. Geltzer unraveled the essence of symbiosis: symbiosis is not only interaction, it is mutual regulation. The scientist found that at the moment when endophytes from the seed germinate into the soil, they need a signal, and this signal is given to them by bacteria.

Here is what Geltser wrote: “The study of the products of synthesis of pure cultures of endophytes has shown with certainty that endophytes form hormonal substances … In addition to hormonal substances, endophytes synthesize vitamins, enzymes, lipids and pigments of various colors in plants, in return for which they receive from the plant the products of its photosynthesis, which serve as food and energy source for them”. It should be clarified that it was on the basis of F. Yu. Geltser's developments that the drug Symbiont-1 was created.

Many vegetable crops have endotrophic mycorrhiza, which develops inside the cortex of the root and penetrates into it through epiblemal cells. Hyphae are located along the length of the root hairs, forming the outer mycelium. Hyphae sharply increase the absorbing surface of the root system, as if increasing the root absorbing system. This enables the plant to improve nutrition in extreme conditions.

In Israel, these mushrooms are used for growing seedlings. For our summer cottages, in times of shortage of good manure, Geltser's recommendations on the use of green fertilizers, the alternation of crops, become important - this activates, revitalizes the soil. Spraying plants with phytoregulators in the initial growing season has a significant effect on the growth and development of plants, but this must be done skillfully, taking into account the illumination, temperature, nutrition.

When fertilizing plants, we must understand that external factors determine their consumption by the plant. At low temperatures, increased doses of nitrogen have a sharply negative effect on plants, while phosphorus and potassium have a positive effect. In the range of +10 … + 25 ^about the consumption of nutrients increases below 10 ^about C these processes considerably suppressed, and lowering the temperature to + 5 + 7 … ^of C has little effect on the flow of potassium in plants, but drastically reduces the absorption of nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium and sulfur.

These patterns are inherent in the root system, therefore, the balance of growth in this case can be regulated by foliar feeding and biostimulants. Unfortunately, the impact of unfavorable climatic factors, as well as the long-term cultivation of the same crops in the same place, when we forget about crop rotation, leads to the so-called "soil fatigue", i.e. causes the selection of individual groups of microorganisms and their excessive development in soils. Persistent plant diseases appear (with the development of microbes pathogenic for plants), they cause the death of the crop.

The introduction of nutrients, biological preparations through the leaf makes plants to a greater extent independent of temperature, soil condition, unbalanced nutritional content in it and physiological exhaustion, and helps to resist the whims of nature. Special water-soluble fertilizers are an "insurance policy" in case of a threat to crops from bad weather and other unfavorable external factors.

Anti-stress growth regulators are effective, increasing the resistance of plants to adverse environmental conditions. These include the preparations Epin, Zircon. The preparation Silk accelerates ripening, increases productivity and disease resistance of tomato, onion, cabbage, cucumber, beans. Silk is a sum of triterpene acids isolated from fir greens. The treatment of plants is carried out starting from the phase of 2-6 leaves. Three times spraying the tomato plants with the preparation during the flowering phase of the first, second and third brushes suppresses the dropping of the ovaries.

Of course, ideally it would be nice if the soil, plants and soil biota entered their natural natural balance, then we would not have problems with the harvest and additional stimulants. In the good old days, the owner put a lot of good manure into the soil. Soil microorganisms actively multiplied and multiplied, creating stable symbiotic communities, which was the guarantee of "health" and soil fertility.

What can be done now? At their summer cottages, you need to try to improve the soil, introduce organic matter in the form of specially prepared composts. Manure from industrial farms contains various hormones, drugs that are now being fed to livestock for profit, and I already mentioned that small amounts of hormonal drugs can have a negative effect on the microbial balance of the soil. And with manure, it's not so simple.

A team of researchers led by Tao Zang of the Genome Institute of Singapore has discovered a large and diverse community of disease-causing viruses in the human gut. It was possible to "identify" 35 types of plant viruses, including 24 species infecting agricultural plants (primarily fruits and vegetables). The most widespread plant virus in the human intestine was the pepper mosaic virus (PMMV). PMMV viruses isolated from human feces have fully retained the ability to infect plants.

Not only humans, but also other mammals are capable of infecting plants with viral infections. Long used as fertilizer, manure can be a source of dangerous infections for plants. There is only one way out - it is to use the recommendations of Geltser on the use of green fertilizers, as well as compost of 1-2 years old.

Read the next part. Harvest components: resistance of varieties and hybrids to various diseases →

Vladimir Stepanov, Doctor of Biological Sciences

Vladimir Stepanov, Doctor of Biological Sciences