Fertilizer with benefits?

(Sponsored) “Plant stress is the threat a grower should fear most.” That’s the message from OMEX® agronomist Dean Konieczka. He wants to encourage growers to think more holistically about crop management; to be better prepared, so that when conditions that propagate plant stress do occur, they’re one step ahead.

“Let’s go back to basics briefly,” he says. “Every plant in every crop is programmed to generate yield — whether vegetative yield, such as leaves, stalks or tubers, or reproductive yield in the form of fruits, nuts or grains.

“The plant’s objective is to produce as many of those leaves or fruits as possible. That’s down to its genetic programming, which is fixed when the grower selects and sows the variety.

“But the plant’s ability to achieve genetic potential depends upon its physiological capacity. When we compile crop management programs — fertilizers, irrigation, fungicides, insecticides, herbicides and so on — our objective is to modify the crop’s local environment, trying to avoid limiting factors that will prevent the plant from achieving its genetic capacity — and thus maximum yield.”

This is bread-and-butter stuff to any modern, progressive farmer, Konieczka accepts. “But there’s only so much we can do to optimize that external environment.”

Instead, plant scientists are beginning to look at optimizing the plant’s internal environment — its systems and processes — to ensure it lacks for nothing in pursuit of its genetic potential.

Scientists at OMEX® decided to focus on the connection between nutrition and crop health: a topic that’s suffered more than its fair share of pseudo-science, snake-oil remedies and miracle cures, says Konieczka, which has discouraged proper research. “And as long as we’ve had effective fungicides available, offering both curative and protective properties, there’s been little incentive to investigate more closely.”

But changes in the industry, not least a greater interest in integrated crop management, suggests it’s now an idea whose time has come, he says.

“Many pathologists would agree that a lot of diseases and pathogens come in on the back of crop stress. What if we can prevent the plant from reaching that state of stress, when its immune defenses are weak? Can we use fewer fungicides, saving them for when we have no alternative?”

Working from anecdotal evidence, the OMEX® team began to look at combinations of copper and zinc: elements already known to play a role in crop health. Zinc helps to maintain the plant’s integumentary system, which comprises the epidermis, leaf cuticle and plant hairs and acts as the first line of defense against physical damage and attack from pathogens. High levels of zinc improve elasticity, wound healing and disease suppression. Meanwhile copper facilitates the production of phenolic compounds, a diverse group of plant metabolites that influence plant growth and defense responses.

The nutrient research project culminated in the launch of Zynergy™, the first in what the company hopes will be a new product category – ‘functional fertilizers’.

“Essentially, we’ve created a fertilizer that acts like a fungicide, without actually being one,” explains Konieczka. “Trials across a range of different crops, from potatoes and other root crops, through cereals, field vegetables and fruit, show that it appears to complement — often in a synergistic way — the fungicidal and bactericidal activity of agrochemicals.

“When used in a typical crop protection program, it can enhance the results. But it’s a genuine fertilizer, containing copper and zinc, and we’re not claiming fungicidal activity.

“In fact, we’re not exactly sure of its mode of action,” says Konieczka, confirming that research to pinpoint its mechanism is still underway. “What is clear, particularly from trials we’ve conducted to examine late blight in potatoes, is that the increased availability of the micronutrients helps the plant to better withstand the attack by the pathogen.

“In a low-fungicide input scenario, Zynergy™ appears to have a statistically significant impact on disease levels when applied early in the season” which he says could help growers manage workloads by keeping disease levels low and reducing the need for ‘fire truck’ treatments.

“Again, this is probably due to the plant making good use of these micronutrients to bolster its defenses and avoid the periods of stress that allow a disease pathogen to take hold. What’s especially great about Zynergy™ is that even in the absence of disease, it remains a highly effective foliar fertilizer, suitable for a wide range of crops.

“On that basis alone, it’s going to find a home in a great many integrated crop management programs.”

Learn more at www.omexusa.com.

The product names and brands referenced here are registered and trademarks of OMEX® Agrifluids, Inc.

© OMEX® Agrifluids, Inc. 2020.