Plants encounter many biotic agents, such as viruses, bacteria, nematodes, weeds, and arachnids. These entities induce biotic stress in their hosts by disrupting plant metabolism. As a result they limit plant growth and can even cause plant mortality. Let’s have a look how bio-stimulants in substrate mixtures can help your plants.
It’s good to know that some biotic agents, however, interact symbiotically or synergistically with their host plants.
As described in our earlier article microbes can be beneficial to plants. They can perform the same role as chemical fertilisers and pesticides, acting as a bio-fertiliser and/or biopesticide. To optimally support your plants we add specific bio-stimulants that work like this to our BIOS product portfolio.
What do bio-stimulants in substrate offer?
Kekkilä Professional’s BIOS product line offers some specific improvements due to the addition of bio-stimulants in substrate mixtures. Let’s have a look at the main ones:
- The “plant growth promoting rhizobacteria” (PGPR) and other bio-stimulant organisms can significantly enhance plant growth and represent a mutually helpful plant-microbe interaction within our substrate.
- Bio-stimulants keep the soil environment rich in macro and micro nutrients via nitrogen fixation, phosphate and potassium solubilisation or mineralisation. They also influence the release of plant growth regulating substances, the production of antibiotics and the biodegradation of organic matter in the soil.
- Bio-fertilisers, when applied as substrate inoculants, multiply and participate in the cycling of nutrients within the crops. This leads to a higher crop productivity. Generally, 60% to 90% of the total applied fertiliser is lost and the remaining 10% – 40% is taken up by plants. This means bio-fertilisers can be an important component of integrated nutrient management systems for sustaining agricultural productivity and a healthy environment.
How does it work?
Kekkilä Professional uses a multilayer approach when mixing the bio-stimulants in substrate. The first layer of the added bio-stimulant formula enhances the substrate by improving rhizosphere micro life. It becomes much more active and speeds up the release of nutrients withing the growing medium. This improves and accelerates the absorption of micro and macro nutrients. As a result the plant is offered ideal conditions to thrive.
The second layer improves the natural defence system of the plant. This way the plant becomes more resilient to abiotic stress(drought, salinity, extreme temperatures) and biotic stress (pathogens, fungal diseases, etc.).
The plant’s defence system is improved by Kekkilä Professional BIOS thanks to the direct and indirect bio-control. Bio-stimulants also ensure the formation of a symbiosis between bio-stimulant microbes and the root system. That’s part of the direct control, preventing pathogens from infecting the plant. Indirect control, among various effects, is mainly expressed by enhancing stress tolerance in their plant hosts by inducing the expression of stress-response genes, phytohormones, and stress-related metabolites.
The benefits of bio-stimulants in substrate
So, in short the addition of bio-stimulants provides a lot of benefits by boosting your plants growth and resilience. To summarise we clearly see the following enhancements:
- Better rooting (influencing also better above-ground growth)
- Resilient root system and stronger plants
- Reduction in plant stress
- Plants are less susceptible to diseases
- Optimised growth (plant follow normal biological development, no extra time needed to ‘fix’ the crop)
- Nutrient efficiency (easier/better nutrient absorption and enhanced nutrient uptake)
- Better overall growth
- Less inputs needed (fertiliser, irrigation etc.)
Contact your distributor if you would like to know more about the availability of the BIOS product portfolio in your area.
