Managing plant stress

Plants get stressed too.  We have seen this over recent years with the changing climate.

We have all seen our recent hot summers decimate lawns through lack of water and excess UV light.

There are basically two different types of stress for plants.

Anything that involves environmental pressures such as extreme heat and cold, too much or too little water, exposure to strong sunlight or not enough through shortened days, these are all abiotic stresses.

Stresses that are inflicted on a plant through an attack by insects, different funghi, bacteria and viruses are known as biotic stress from the word bio meaning life or living.

So how do plants cope with all these multitudes of complex stresses?

Like us, when we get attacked by a virus or sustain an injury or even get sunburned our clever internal chemistry kicks into action to help protect us and heal the damage, plants have their own biochemical systems that do exactly the same.

Research has shown that these internal biochemical systems or metabolic pathways, although ultimately very complex, start off in very similar ways irrespective of the cause.

So, it doesn’t matter what the reason behind the stress, the defence mechanisms that the plant employs to protect itself are very similar at the beginning of the reaction.

All these processes use specialised molecules and bioflavonoids for the plant to repair itself.

Having immediate access to these molecules is an enormous help to the plant to aid swift recovery.   In many cases, the presence of these bioflavonoids before the stressful event can prevent any adverse reaction.

Here is an example of two parsley plants from the same plot, they were both exposed to fungal root disease.   The plant on the right had access to the bioflavonoids in our Biostimulants developed by us at The Magic Molecule Co. and shows no sign of damage, disease or stunted growth.

However, the plant on the left shows less development and discoloured roots.

This has led to larger leaves, thicker stems and a more robust plant on the right.

Plants have evolved systems to manage stress and biostimulants have been designed to tap into these evolved plant systems and help plants before the stressful events occur and speed recovery when the plant needs support.