Amino acids key in cereal crop spring recovery

Giving crops ready-built amino acids and nutrition such as oligosaccharides frees up energy to be used where it’s needed most, boosting spring growth and setting plants up for the rest of the season. Product Development & Technical Manager for Arysta LifeScience UK & Ireland, Don Pendergrast, discusses the benefits of amino acids in spring recovery.

 

Don Pendergrast – Arysta LifeScience Product Development & Technical Manager

 

“There are around 20 different types of amino acid compounds used by plants, each contributing individually to a plant’s development.

 

Plants need a continuous supply of protein-forming amino acids during periods of growth and development. In optimum conditions, they can produce all the amino acids they require, but during periods of stress, such as reduced photosynthesis or nutrient availability, the plant’s own amino acid production may be compromised.

 

Of course, to ensure optimum health, amino acids need to be supported by other factors such as sufficient nutrition and water uptake, further helping a plant to build protein and grow most efficiently.

 

If a plant doesn’t need to create all its own amino acids, it will be able to better utilise its resources and improve its energy usage, increasing stem, leaf and root growth in the spring. This has multiple benefits. Not only can crops overcome stress more easily, but their vigour will be improved, as well as their pest and disease resistance.

 

By giving plants amino acids early in the spring especially, we will better equip them ready for when soil temperatures increase and growth is triggered. This maximises their recovery potential, as well as their chance of maintaining tillers carried over from winter.

 

Launched last summer by Arysta LifeScience, Calibra Carbo® combines the protein building properties of 18 different vegetable amino acids with a second natural biostimulant containing oligosaccharides, which improves the metabolism of the plant and increases root mass.

 

The combination of amino acids and oligosaccharides work hand-in-hand, as the oligosaccharides accelerate the transfer of the amino acids through the plant, speeding up their availability whilst also boosting the plant’s root system and ability to access water and nutrients.

 

Experience and years of trials have shown us that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach isn’t most effective when it comes to biostimulants. In this case, by combining the two modes of action, we have developed a product that offers a synergistic effect above and below the ground.

 

This improves the crop’s overall potential by maximising the number of pod and grain sites, and the fill.

 

Watch a bespoke animation to learn more about Calibra Carbo and its unique mode of action here.