Use of Yeast Stress-Induced Proteins and Surfactant Complex in Root Promotion for Production Agricuture and Ornamental Plant Production.

In production agriculture root development can be a limiting factor for crop production times and for yield. The scientific literature has many examples of how drought stress can affect the physiology, growth and biomass production of a variety of agricultural plants.  Therefore, if root systems can be enhanced so that root and shoot production is increased or maintained during deficit irrigation, agricultural production may be increased.

Much of the time spent growing ornamental plants is waiting for the proper root structure to develop within the pot.  Plug producers must wait to ship their product until the plug has a significant root system or the plug will be destroyed when removing them from the liners.  Increasing the root system within the liners and within pots will allow producers to ship their product much sooner.  In addition, plugs that have gone past their development time become root bound and when sowing the plug in a pot, the roots do not break free from the root bound plug rendering them useless.  Therefore, many plug producers discard old root bound plugs to avoid plant loss and cost recovery from customers.  Use of yeast stress-induced proteins that can enhance a plants ability to develop roots may be of benefit to ornamental producers.

A series of greenhouse studies has demonstrated the ability of the protein/surfactant complex to promote root production in spinach and selected ornamental plants at very low application rates (25ppm) of the formulation. Use of these protein formulations may have significant implications in production agriculture and ornamental plant production, especially during deficit irrigation or drought stress.