Turfgrass Biostimulants - Kelp, Humic Acid, and More

This is the place to discuss Organic lawncare.
Post Reply
Charley
Posts: 567
Joined: September 17th, 2013, 11:13 pm
Location: Kentucky
Grass Type: Tall Fescue
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Turfgrass Biostimulants - Kelp, Humic Acid, and More

Post by Charley » May 27th, 2017, 3:32 am

Two links from Virginia Tech Research:

Grounds Maintenance magazine:
http://grounds-mag.com/mag/grounds_main ... rfgrasses/

During the past 10 years at Virginia Tech, we have evaluated many kinds of biostimulants for use in the turfgrass industry. Of the various materials we've examined, the most promising are seaweed extract, humic acid, amino acids, benzyladenine, trinexapac-ethy, propiconazole, salicylic acid and silicates. All of these products exert beneficial influences either through hormonal effects or by raising antioxidant levels.

Although biostimulants can be synthetic chemicals, naturally occurring organic materials are excellent sources of biostimulants. For example, humic acid and seaweed extract are two commonly used turf biostimulants.


Same authors but with more detail on application rates and references to other research - note response to low application rates as in the BLSC and Kelp Help recommended here. Additional biostimulants are mentioned with research reports:

http://thenogstoreusa.com/uploads/natur ... _paper.pdf

User avatar
1977212
Posts: 992
Joined: June 16th, 2015, 8:49 pm
Location: MN
Grass Type: Quack, No Mix
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Re: Turfgrass Biostimulants - Kelp, Humic Acid, and More

Post by 1977212 » May 27th, 2017, 11:07 am

Interesting.

Fullheadofturf1234
Posts: 176
Joined: June 10th, 2018, 1:41 pm
Location: Southeast Michigan
Grass Type: KBG I think
Lawn Size: 5000-10000
Level: Some Experience

Re: Turfgrass Biostimulants - Kelp, Humic Acid, and More

Post by Fullheadofturf1234 » August 18th, 2018, 12:59 am

So add aspirin to blsc ?

“Salicylic acid, the active ingredient in aspirin, seems to improve plant resistance to disease and environmental stresses.”

User avatar
Dchall_San_Antonio
Posts: 3341
Joined: December 17th, 2008, 1:53 am
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Grass Type: St Augustine
Lawn Size: 5000-10000
Level: Advanced

Re: Turfgrass Biostimulants - Kelp, Humic Acid, and More

Post by Dchall_San_Antonio » August 28th, 2018, 4:55 pm

For many, many years I judged the botany projects at a regional science fair in San Antonio. Wish I had a dime for all the salicylic acid and methyl salicylate (oil of wintergreen) disease reduction projects I saw. The gasses seem to work if you have a tomato with tobacco mosaic virus inside a terrarium. The last guy who did that project did it so well he won the regional and went onto an international science fair. I'm really glad I stuck it out to see his project. He went much further than anyone else had by examining the genetics of the plants before and after the exposure to the gasses. Apparently there was a gene in the plant that nobody knew what it was doing. He made the discovery that when the plant is exposed to the two gasses, the gene activates and provides an additional measure of protection from disease. There were three genes involved. Each gas activated one gene, but when they were used together, the third gene was activated. Then the guy quantified the improvement by taking digital pictures of the leaves before and after and measuring the color of each pixel in the picture. And the guy was in high school. When a project like this comes along we always ask if they had a sponsor or got any help from anyone. This guy was legit. In order to do the genetics he had to go out of his way, but the people at the facility he used just sat back and watched.

john5246
Posts: 227
Joined: August 24th, 2018, 8:44 pm
Location: Chicago
Grass Type: KBG
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Re: Turfgrass Biostimulants - Kelp, Humic Acid, and More

Post by john5246 » September 10th, 2018, 2:06 pm

Dchall_San_Antonio wrote:
August 28th, 2018, 4:55 pm
For many, many years I judged the botany projects at a regional science fair in San Antonio. Wish I had a dime for all the salicylic acid and methyl salicylate (oil of wintergreen) disease reduction projects I saw. The gasses seem to work if you have a tomato with tobacco mosaic virus inside a terrarium. The last guy who did that project did it so well he won the regional and went onto an international science fair. I'm really glad I stuck it out to see his project. He went much further than anyone else had by examining the genetics of the plants before and after the exposure to the gasses. Apparently there was a gene in the plant that nobody knew what it was doing. He made the discovery that when the plant is exposed to the two gasses, the gene activates and provides an additional measure of protection from disease. There were three genes involved. Each gas activated one gene, but when they were used together, the third gene was activated. Then the guy quantified the improvement by taking digital pictures of the leaves before and after and measuring the color of each pixel in the picture. And the guy was in high school. When a project like this comes along we always ask if they had a sponsor or got any help from anyone. This guy was legit. In order to do the genetics he had to go out of his way, but the people at the facility he used just sat back and watched.
Yes they have adults who actually set up the projects for them. Whether that's a parent or someone they know through a teacher who, in many cases, practically does the whole thing for them and let's them put their name on it. Not sure why it's done this way since some students get access to really smart people. A great example of this is the girl who made an ebola test and won. Her name is Olivia Hallisey and she won the Google Science Fair. You can see her interview with Stephen Colbert where he asks her about the help she got.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests