When you raise a crop, that crop experiences two types of stresses…
BIOTIC AND ABIOTIC.
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THESE TWO STRESS TYPES, AND HOW DO YOU BEST MITIGATE EACH?
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THESE TWO STRESS TYPES,
AND HOW DO YOU BEST MITIGATE EACH?
When you spray weeds, insects, or diseases, you are controlling BIOTIC LOSSES – those related to the plant interacting with living, biological factors within the environment. ABIOTIC LOSSES are much different; they are a result of stress from environmental conditions such as heat, cold, wind, and moisture.
HOW MUCH OF YOUR YIELD POTENTIAL IS LOST TO ABIOTIC STRESS EACH YEAR?
COMPARED TO RECORD YIELDS, ABIOTIC STRESS CAN REDUCE YIELDS BY MORE THAN 60%.1
Think of it like this. The world record for corn yield is 623.84 bushels per acre. If we consider that as the high end of yield potential while factoring in that abiotic stress accounts for up to 60% of yield losses, that means our yield drops by more than 375 bushels to roughly 250! From a yield perspective, that’s in the neighborhood of what many farmers are producing today.
TO PUT IT SIMPLY, ABIOTIC LOSSES ARE THE SINGLE LARGEST YIELD DRAG YOU FACE ON A YEARLY BASIS.
SO, WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?
One way is to minimize the negative effects on corn plants when they metabolize herbicide passes. MEGAGRO L is a plant growth hormone product that helps the plant recover faster from glyphosate applications. In fact, this product has held a patent as a glyphosate safener since 2012. Here’s how it works. When you spray glyphosate foliar on a plant, that plant has to decide if the toxin in the herbicide will kill it or if the plant will survive and metabolize it out. This process requires the plant to pay an energy tax, removing that energy away from critical functions needed for growth. When MegaGro L is included in the tank, the auxin load in the product helps fortify the plant’s hormone production and forces the plant to balance its hormones, thereby speeding up how it processes a glyphosate application. When applied with a glyphosate application during periods of rapid growth, MegaGro L helps plants to recover faster while providing critical plant growth hormones needed to continue development through vegetative stages.
MEGAGRO L can be applied foliar or in-furrow to any crop. When applied foliar, it can be mixed with any foliar herbicide at 2 oz per acre. Although patented as a glyphosate safener, our research has shown MEGAGRO L not only provides quicker recovery following glyphosate applications, but we have also observed promising results with other foliar herbicides. That’s why we recommend MEGAGRO L be in the tank anytime you make a foliar herbicide application.
ALTHOUGH HELPING CROPS RECOVER FROM HERBICIDE APPLICATIONS IS CRITICAL, HEAT AND DROUGHT STRESS ACCOUNT FOR THE MOST SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF ABIOTIC LOSSES.
At Hefty Seed Company, our Naturals portfolio continues to expand with products that can help you with these issues. In the fall of 2024, the EPA granted a corn label for a new product called CLIMATEKING. With the active ingredients of salicylic acid and choline chloride, ClimateKing is one of the first registered products designed to help with abiotic stresses.
CLIMATEKING triggers the systemic acquired resistance (SAR) in plants. The SAR is the plant’s defense mechanism that controls how it handles stress. Triggering the SAR primes the plant for stress events like heat, cold, or drought. In other words, think of the SAR as a plant’s natural immunity. When a plant is under a high stress load, oxidative damage begins. Salicylic acid helps alleviate that damage by enhancing enzymatic antioxidant activity, while choline chloride promotes increased plant growth and improves photosynthetic efficiency. From a plant structure standpoint, the biggest benefit provided by choline chloride is it reinforces the structural integrity of cell membranes and maintains plant cell water pressure. When a plant is under stress, its cells experience cell wall leakage, which is detrimental because that means those cells aren’t running as efficiently as they should be. An application of CLIMATEKING helps mitigate stresses by triggering the plants defense network before stress events such as high heat or cold occur.
CLIMATEKING is currently registered for corn, and we expect a soybean label expansion by the end of the 2025 growing season.
WILL CLIMATEKING SOLVE ALL THE ISSUES CAUSED BY ABIOTIC LOSSES?
No, but it’s a tool that we have that can help you minimize loss of yield potential when these stresses happen during the season. ClimateKing can be applied foliar at 2 oz per acre and can be mixed with herbicides, other biologicals, fungicides, and insecticides.
We continue to make improvements in developing products that help plants mitigate stress in-season. With the right timing and products, you can unlock more of your yield potential and get closer to raising top yields, even when dealing with high-stress conditions like heat and drought.
Work with your local Hefty Agronomist to see how MEGAGRO L or CLIMATEKING can be a fit in your application plan this season.
1. Boyer JS. “Plant Productivity and Environment.” Science. 1982 Oct 29;218(4571):443-8