Producers must understand the strategies that plants have adopted to deal with environmental and climate change
Farmers may need to brush up on plant biology to make their crops more productive.
Plants have adopted a range of strategies to deal with stress brought on by environmental and climate change.
Farmers can help in some ways, but the plant also knows how to respond to stresses to keep itself in a state of homeostasis, or balance, said agronomist Mike Dolinski, who is part of the agri-consulting company Earth Dirt Soil.
“We haven’t figured out how to work properly with it yet,” he said at Farm Forum held in Calgary Dec. 4-6.
Read Also
Soybean market still figuring out implications of China-U.S. pact
Soybean futures had a muted reaction to the U.S. trade deal with China as the market tries to figure out the nuances of the deal.
Soil and tissue testing to find deficiencies is critical.
“You will learn more about what your crop is doing than anything else you do,” he said.
“We need to understand water, we have got to understand nutrients, we have got to understand stress if we are going to move into the future with the genetics we are going to have,” he said.
Stress may result from nutrient deficiencies, excess fertilizer, pesticides, disease, salinity and acidic soil.
There are some specific problems in Western Canada.
A soil pH of seven would be an advantage, but acidic soils are common across the Prairies. No one is applying limestone to alleviate this.
“As long as we fertilize, the acidity is going to increase in our soils,” he said.
Potassium, zinc, manganese, iron, calcium, copper and sulfur are important nutrients, but there are some deficiencies.
For example, molybdenum is important to the nitrogen used by the plant, and zinc is involved in activating enzymes.
“Feed the plants and let them pick what they need to recover from a stressful situation,” he said.
Most western Canadian soils are phosphorus deficient. Together with calcium, phosphorous can help a plant handle drought.
Sulfur is even more critical.
“We are mining our sulfur out, and we are not getting it back. We used to get it from the atmosphere, not anymore,” he said.
Canola is a sulfur eater, and the deficiency could worsen as acres expand exponentially and as farmers turn to shorter rotations.
Sulfur is tied up in the organic matter reserve of topsoil. Organic matter across the West is depleting.
Sulfur is the base of glutathione production, which is the key responder in dealing with stress because it causes an induced response in the plant.
The amino acids cysteine and methionine also have sulfur. These two are building blocks for protein production.
“Sulfur is key to a whole pile of things because it has the ability to attach things together and transport minerals,” he said.
“If we do not add that sulfur back to the soil and we keep mining it down, we are going to have more problems dealing with stress, in my opinion.”
Potassium is another essential mineral and helps plants cope with drought.
“When it gets dry the potassium gets tied up in the lattices of the clay particles and the plants can’t get enough of it.”
Potassium keeps cells inflated and homeostatic. It plays a critical role in stomata opening and closing, water regulation and water use efficiency, enzyme activity and protein synthesis.
A stomata is a tiny opening or pore in the under surface of plant leaves. Plants breathe through these openings. They close at night or may shut down because of excess heat, drought and salinity.
Compaction is another common prairie problem. It interferes with root development and water percolation. Roots cannot penetrate and draw up water.
“When a plant is under drought stress, the roots know first because the roots are searching the ground and sensing everything,” he said.
