Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 11:25 AM

BM 86: A Reliable Fruit Set Enhancer for Cotton

Stephen P. Kelly and E.K. Hensley. Agrimar Corp., POB 1419, Flowery Branch, GA 30542

Goëmar BM86 is a foliar biostimulant used in fruiting crops to enhance the development of flowers, pollination and the first stage in the formation of fruit. Replicated experimental trials were conducted on a variety of cotton types over a 6 year period in different regions of the U.S. to identify any potential benefit of the product over an untreated check, Mepiquat Chloride and any potential additive effect when used in combination with Mepiquat Chloride. The primary mode of action of BM 86 is ostensibly through the increased production of polyamines in plant growth via the active ingredient GA 142. These are naturally occurring substances found in plants and act essentially as promoters of growth. Polyamines have been implicated in many physiological processes such as cell division and organogenesis and also play an important role at the time of flowering, pollination and early fruit development (Costa et al. 1984). This work has shown, in particular, that fruit polyamine content influences the number and size of fruit at harvest time. Plant monitoring data in the recent trials suggest that increases in yield are associated with increased boll numbers on the plant, however mapping has not identified a specific location of the plant that is responsible for the increased boll numbers. Numeric trends as well as statistically significant yield improvements were observed for treatments that contained BM86, Mepiquat Chloride and a combination of BM 86 and Mepiquat Chloride.

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