Biostimulants
A definite target is to improve the health of the turf and the symbiotic species to increase resistance to pathogens.
Biostimulants are a category of products that have been around for some time. However, it is fair to say that today there is a greater emphasis on what these products can do given that the use of plant protection products is increasingly limited.
A biostimulant differs from fertiliser and a plant protection product because it should not have any direct action on diseases or parasites and should not provide any nutritional contribution, even if in practice some biostimulants contain these elements such as, for example, trace elements and carbon sources in algae.
However, many biostimulants, when applied to soil or foliar, can improve resistance to abiotic stress and increase plant yield, vigour and quality through a wide range of different mechanisms.
Obviously what a biostimulant can do must be carefully analysed and the results obtained examined to evaluate the convenience of continuing with a programme or, potentially, modifying it.
Products sold as biostimulants include algae and their extracts, humic and fulvic acids, molasses, stillage, amino acids, soil oxidants, phosphite solutions, chitin derivatives and microorganisms (bacteria and fungi).
It is also important to use appropriate application rates to achieve results.
