Crop cultivation in the 21st century is more complex than ever. Extreme heat waves, prolonged droughts, rising soil salinity, and erratic rainfall all exert intense pressure on plant health and yields. These abiotic stresses are often multi-faceted and can strike during critical growth stages, lowering a grower’s returns and threatening global food security. In response, Brandon Bioscience is advancing research-driven solutions to help farmers future-proof their crops against these climate-related disruptions. Below, we explore what these abiotic stresses entail, why seaweed-based biostimulants hold such promise, and how Brandon Bioscience’s dedication to precision extraction translates to real-world results in the field.
1. Abiotic Stress: A Growing Concern
Abiotic stresses include any environmental pressures that inhibit a plant’s growth, physiology, or yield potential, without involving pests or diseases. Key examples are:
- Drought and Water Deficit: Irregular rainfall can restrict root water uptake, destabilise cell turgor, and reduce photosynthetic capacity.
- High Salinity: Excess sodium (Na⁺) and chloride (Cl⁻) ions in the soil or irrigation water disrupt nutrient balance, leading to stunted growth and reduced productivity.
- Temperature Extremes: Both scorching heat and unexpected cold snaps can damage pollen, disrupt pollination, and shorten fruit-development windows.
- Nutrient Imbalances: Even small shortfalls (or excessive applications) of nitrogen, potassium, or micronutrients can undermine a crop’s resilience and final yield.
Left unmanaged, these stressors can compromise both yield quantity and quality, eroding a farm’s profitability. Traditional farming techniques, like upping irrigation or fertiliser rates, are often either unsustainable or insufficient for modern conditions. This gap between potential and reality is where biostimulants excel.
2. The Biostimulant Advantage
Biostimulants are natural or biologically derived materials that fortify a plant’s existing defences and growth pathways without acting as conventional fertilisers. They typically act by:
- Promoting Root Architecture
Stronger, deeper root systems access more water and nutrients in the soil profile. This can be the difference between resilience and failure during water-scarce periods. - Elevating Stress-Response Pathways
Certain biostimulants trigger the production of protective proteins, enzymes, or osmolytes (e.g. proline) that stabilise cell membranes under drought or heat stress. - Enhancing Nutrient Use Efficiency (NUE)
By upregulating nutrient transporters in roots or boosting essential enzymes like nitrate reductase, biostimulants can help plants make better use of whatever fertilisers are applied.
Unlike one-time solutions, these mechanisms help the crop help itself, an approach that typically improves sustainability and long-term soil health.
3. Why Ascophyllum nodosum?
Among the numerous sources of biostimulants, seaweed extracts from the brown alga Ascophyllum nodosum stand out. Growing in the intertidal zones of the North Atlantic, Ascophyllum nodosum endures harsh, fluctuating conditions, exposure to direct sunlight, cold waters, tidal surges, and salt stress. The alga has evolved a suite of protective compounds to thrive in these extremes, many of which have proven beneficial for cultivated crops. These substances include complex Carbohydrates like alginates, fucoidan, and laminarin support cell wall integrity and act as elicitors for plant stress responses.
4. Brandon Bioscience’s Precision Approach
While seaweed extracts are widely recognised, Brandon Bioscience takes this technology further through meticulous research and precision extraction. Rather than relying on a single, generic process, the company optimises process factors like to create biostimulants with specific modes of action. By doing so, they create targeted biostimulants for distinct agronomic challenges:
- Water Deficit or Drought: Some extracts emphasise oligosaccharides that encourage root development and higher relative water content.
- Salinity Stress: Other formulations focus on restricting sodium accumulation while promoting potassium transport, safeguarding leaf tissues.
- Heat Stress in Reproductive Stages: Extracts enriched with low molecular weight polysaccharides can improve pollen viability, fruit set, and final yields in hot spells.
- Improving Nutrient Efficiency: Products like PSI®362 target nitrogen uptake, enabling farmers to reduce fertiliser rates while maintaining yields.
Moreover, Brandon Bioscience collaborates with independent research institutions and universities to document each product’s mode of action. This scientific rigour ensures transparency and fosters confidence among farmers and agronomists.
5. Real-World Impacts
5.1 Boosting Drought Resilience in Vegetables
Field trials on tomatoes subjected to extended dry periods have shown that seaweed-based biostimulants like MARTELLO®, reduce membrane damage and maintain higher leaf chlorophyll content. As a result, these tomatoes not only looked healthier but also reported yield increases of up to 8–15% over untreated controls.
5.2 Managing Salinity in High-Value Crops
In areas where irrigation water has an elevated electrical conductivity (EC), farmers often battle stunted plant growth and smaller fruit. Brandon Bioscience’s BLOCSAL® with PSI® 475 Precision Technology has helped keep sodium ions out of the leaves while promoting potassium absorption, enabling yields to rise by as much as 23% in salinity-stressed tomatoes.
5.3 Optimising Fertiliser Use in Cereals
With fertiliser costs soaring, improving nitrogen use efficiency has become vital for profitable wheat and barley production. One solution launched by Brandon Bioscience, co-applies a biostimulant, PSI®362 Precision Technology with NPK fertiliser granules, boosting the expression of nitrate transporters in roots. Multiple trials have documented gains in NUE of up to 30–60%, enabling some growers to cut nitrogen applications by 25% without yield penalties.
5.4 Reducing Pod Shatter in Oilseed Crops
Oilseed rape (OSR) and soybeans commonly lose 15–25% of seeds to early pod shatter. Targeted biostimulant SEALICIT® fortifies pod walls by modulating genes like IND, reducing premature splitting and increasing harvested yield.
6. Integrating Biostimulants into Farm Programmes
Brandon Bioscience recommends an integrated approach to maximise results:
- Identify Key Stresses: Whether it’s salinity, drought, or heat waves, understanding the primary limiting factor in your environment is essential.
- Match the Right Product: Each seaweed-derived biostimulant is formulated for specific modes of action. The targeted performance ensures the farmer is getting the most from the biostimulant.
- Timing and Application Method: Some extracts perform best when applied as a foliar spray before stress hits, while others may be coated onto fertiliser granules for gradual release. Seed coatings also exist for crops needing early vigour and root establishment.
- Monitor Outcomes: Track plant health, yield, and resource usage (water, fertiliser) to gauge improvements and fine-tune subsequent seasons’ strategies. Given the diversity in soil types, climate zones, and crop demands, biostimulant adoption is rarely a one-size-fits-all process. Brandon Bioscience’s field experts support growers with tailored recommendations, ensuring that each farm’s unique challenges are addressed.
7. Looking Forward
By combining rigorous research with practical field solutions, Brandon Bioscience leads the way in seaweed-based innovations to tackle abiotic stress. With a growing body of peer-reviewed studies and extensive on-farm validation, its precision biostimulants have become go-to tools for farmers seeking to maintain reliable yields under increasingly volatile conditions.Enhancing crop tolerance to drought, salinity, and other environmental pressures is no longer just beneficial, it’s essential for long-term farming success. Through scientifically validated formulations and personalised agronomic support, Brandon Bioscience empowers growers to preserve both profitability and sustainability in the face of global climate challenges.
