The role of zinc in mitigating temperature stress
Climate change, which has fully affected the territory of our country, is the reason for reduced precipitation compared with the long-term average. It has also led to such a phenomenon as temperature stress. Modern high-yielding varieties and hybrids react more sensitively to stress, resulting in quantitative and qualitative yield losses.
Can anything be done about this? Yes! According to physiologists, it is quite possible to help plants by optimizing mineral nutrition. One of the nutrients with anti-stress properties is zinc.
By sensitivity to zinc supply, crops are divided into three groups:
- - Very sensitive: corn, flax, hops, grapes, fruit crops;
- - Moderately sensitive: soybean, beans, faba beans, peas, sugar beet, sunflower, vegetables, berry crops;
- - Slightly sensitive: oats, wheat, barley, rye.
The physiological role of zinc in plants is very important and varied. It is part of many enzymes responsible for plant life and health (carbonic anhydrases, phosphate dehydrogenases, peroxidases, oxidases, polyphenol oxidases). Zinc increases plant resistance to drought, heat and cold. When zinc is lacking, phenolic compounds accumulate in different parts of plants, which harm the plant and reduce its resistance to diseases.
Zinc takes part in protein and carbohydrate metabolism in plants, in particular in the accumulation of proteins, sugars and starch in the crop. Zinc deficiency most often appears on sandy, calcareous and peat soils, and also with very high phosphorus content in the soil. Lack of zinc has a significant negative effect on seed formation, but is less critical for the formation of vegetative organs.
With zinc deficiency, chlorotic spots appear on plant leaves, which over time become pale green and then turn white. In fruit crops «rosetting» appears. With zinc starvation, fewer flower buds are laid down on fruit crops and yield drops sharply. Among field crops, zinc shortage most often shows in the early growth phases of corn as whitening of the leaf tip, between the veins or of the whole plant. In legumes it shows as chlorosis on the leaves.
Foliar application of zinc prevents or solves the problem of this nutrient shortage. The most effective is zinc in chelate form and in combination with amino acids (to strengthen the anti-stress effect). These are exactly the components contained in GROS Amino-Zn from «ECOORGANIC». In trials on a number of crops under heat stress, application of GROS Amino-Zn at 1.0 l/ha gave a yield increase of 8.0 to 16.4%.