Understanding Biostimulants-Fylloton

Biostimulant use continues to gain traction in the horticulture industry as growers seek gains to improve yield, volume, size and taste.
The word biostimulant is commonly used but not always well understood by growers. A biostimulant in the context of a product applied to plants is designed to enhance nutrition efficiency, abiotic stress tolerance and/or crop quality traits, regardless of its nutrient content.
 
The biostimulant FYLLOTON from Biolchim enables plants to save energy and to speed-up metabolic activity, stimulating vegetative development, avoiding growth arrests and rapidly reactivating vegetative growth after a stressful event.

In this article we examine the early plant growth period from budbreak, when the plant can suffer from abiotic stress due to cold and how growers can overcome this using Fylloton.

Amino acids are commonly referred to within discussions about plant nutrition. It is a term used in a broad sense often without an understanding of the complexities of amino acids. i.e., the role they play and the functions they perform in the plant’s development and growth cycle. At a fundamental level amino acids are the building blocks for plant proteins and enzymes.

Studies of plant genetics have led to an understanding of the various forms of amino acids and how plants utilize them through their growth stages. Plants synthesize twenty-one
amino acid forms that are critical for them to perform multiple functions through the growth and reproductive stage of their lifecycle. Amino acids are also a key influence in the evolutional development of plant species, and their ability to adapt to different ecology.

Armed with knowledge of the plant’s natural chemical makeup and backed by extensive trials, Biolchim began to produce Fylloton. Advanced technologies are used to hydrolyze sources of amino acids from species that accumulate elevated levels through their adaption to survive and dominate their natural environment. Once extracted, the substances are concentrated and presented in the usable formulation Fylloton. Growers utilize Fylloton to enhance plant performance and to assist in overcoming stress events which would otherwise reduce performance.

Many plant species face cold induced stress during early spring. Stress can occur from temperatures 10°C or below and may or may not display visible symptoms. The cold induced stress will reduce the plant’s energy production, slowing amino acid development and thus plant growth.

Biolchim developed Fylloton to enhance the vegetative growth during the period of cold induced stress. Applying Fylloton to plants will also assist growth during periods of low energy production which can result in sub-optimal hormone development. The amino acid Tryptophan contained in Fylloton will assist in overcoming such low energy production periods, lifting the hormone level and overcoming the otherwise reduced growth response.

Fylloton is typically applied at a label rate of 2.5 litres / ha, with a minimum of 2 applications prior to and during cool periods to mitigate slowing plant growth.Fylloton from Biolchim, is available exclusively in New Zealand from Farmlands Co-operative.

For further information please contact your Farmlands Technical Advisor.

Article supplied by Biolchim in conjunction with Dwayne Farrington, Technical Leader – Kiwifruit and sub-tropical crops, Farmlands Co-operative.