Some people believe that talking to your plants makes them thrive. While there’s limited scientific support for sound improving plant health, there’s a growing amount of evidence about the benefits of mechanical stimulation, like touch, wind or rain. Researchers reporting in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry examined the impact of watering practices on tomato plants. They found that the size of the water droplets affected plant growth and resistance to pests and pathogens.
Climate change threatens crop production as rising temperatures, unstable rainfall patterns, and more insects and diseases endanger plant health and yields. Thus, there is growing pressure to identify ways to moderate these environmental effects, ideally without increasing the use of chemical pesticides. To address this challenge, Man-Qun Wang and colleagues examined how mechanically stimulating tomato plants with water droplets impacts their growth and might protect them from insect predation and fungal infection.
The researchers sprayed tomato plants with water twice daily and compared the effects of small droplets (200 micrometers, about the size of a computer monitor pixel) and large droplets (1,000 micrometers, about the diameter of a pinhead) versus no spray. They also covered the soil with a barrier to ensure the spray didn’t influence how much water the roots received.
Structural observations revealed:
Metabolic analysis revealed that tomato plants sprayed with large water droplets had:
Given these results, the researchers suggested that continued developments in water spray technologies and droplet atomization could improve agricultural practices, making farming greener and more efficient.
The authors do not acknowledge a funding source for this study.
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Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
“Suprathreshold Water Spray Stimulus Enhances Plant Defences against Biotic Stresses in Tomato”
9-Sep-2024