Biostimulant for Protecting Plants from Stress

What is a Biostimulant?

A biostimulant is an agricultural product used to stimulate physiological processes in plants such as growth, development, flowering, and fruit formation. Biostimulants contain components that mimic natural plant growth regulators or stimulate plant growth.

Agricultural crops do not exhibit sufficient yields under stress conditions. Therefore, stimulants are used to ensure that plants are resistant to abiotic and biotic stress conditions.

The factors affecting the yield of agricultural crops are as follows.

Porosity
Mineral Content
Water content
Aeration
Acidity

In addition to many abiotic factors related to the chemical and physical properties of the soil, such as these, the surface parts of the plant are also affected by some abiotic factors. These factors on the surface of the plant are as follows.

Temperature
Humidity
Air Composition
Light Intensity

When one or more of the factors mentioned here become unfavorable, such as soil shrinkage, very high or very low temperatures, it causes stress in agricultural crops. As a result of this stress, growth delay occurs, stopping partially or completely. Some symptoms of developmental disorders appear.

Biotic factors resulting from the physiological and biological conditions of the world, especially pathogenic microbes and plant pests, affect the natural growth and development of the plant, causing a decrease in the harvest quantity and the quality of the crops.

How Do Plants Protect Themselves Against Abiotic and Biotic Stress?

Agricultural crops naturally implement some protection mechanisms against stress factors within their structures. These protection mechanisms are carried out through the production of compounds that undertake a defense role in plants.

Plants produce salicylic acid to carry out protective mechanisms against abiotic and biotic stress. Salicylic acid ensures that minerals are correctly taken into the plant structure by increasing cell membrane permeability and mitochondrial respiration in plants.

In addition, salicylic acid has a chemical effect that acts as a signaling property, increasing tolerance against abiotic and biotic stresses by ensuring the induction of a series of processes in plants.

In this way, systemic acquired resistance is activated in the plant, providing defense against pathogens and insects.

What are the Challenges of Using Salicylic Acid in Stimulant Compositions?

The biggest limiting effect on the use of salicylic acid on plants is the solubility factor of this chemical substance. Salicylic Acid has very low solubility in water. For this reason, it significantly affects the preparation of the spray solution in the agricultural sector and its use in agricultural facilities with hydraulic spray mechanisms.

Another factor is that salicylic acid crystallizes rapidly after adhering to the plant surface. Because of this, it struggles to penetrate plant cells. This limits the growth of the plant.

What is the Composition of the Stimulant Used in Plants?

The surfactant, which is one of the alkyl polyglucosides selected from a group of biodegradable nonionic surfactants within the stimulant composition, ensures that the stimulant composition is easily retained on the plant surface during spraying. In this way, penetration into plant cells becomes easier.

By spraying the composition produced in this way onto the plant surface, it will cover the surface of the plants very well and help salicylic acid and other active ingredients penetrate the plant cells better.

The composition of this biostimulant is as follows.