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US 5,597,400 AGranted
Methods and compositions for enhancing carbon fixation in plants
OwnerArthur M. Nonomura, Andrew A. Bensoninventors
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OwnerArthur M. Nonomura, Andrew A. Bensoninventors
Estimating the term…
Plant growth stimulants containing compounds which increase intracellular carbon dioxide as the main active component and optionally supplemented with specific nutrients have been found to enhance productivity of plants. Exemplary compounds include lower alcohols, such as methanol, ethanol, propanol and butanol, and amino acids, such as glycine, glutamate, and aspartate. Such growth stimulation appears to result, in part, from inhibition of stress induced photorespiration according to a previously unrecognized photosynthetic pathway. Exposure of the plants to sunlight or other sufficient illumination following treatment with the compositions results in enhanced fixation of carbon dioxide and turgor. Stimulant compositions may comprise from 5% to 50% by volume aqueous solutions of methanol or 0.1% to 10% by weight amino acids and are preferably applied by foliar spraying of plants and plant shoots.
A method for promoting growth in plants, said method comprising:
A plant growth promoting composition comprising an aqueous solution of methanol or methanol metabolite selected from the group consisting of formaldehyde, formic acid, and methyl formate present in an amount sufficient to increase plant turgidity and enhance carbon fixation when applied to a plant, wherein the methanol is present at least 10% by volume, said solution further comprising a nitrogen nutrient source and a phosphorus nutrient source present in amounts sufficient to provide said nutrients to a treated plant and an amount of agriculturally acceptable surfactant effective to enhance surface wetting and methanol penetration in a treated plant, wherein the nitrogen source is selected from the group consisting of urea, urea formaldehyde, isobutylidene urea, sulfur coated urea, nitrates, nitrate of soda, calcium nitrate, ammonium salts, and an amino acid selected from the group consisting of glycine, glutamate, glutamine, alanine, and aspartate, and the phosphorus source is selected from the group consisting of phosphate salts, phosphate salts and phosphate esters of carbohydrate metabolites, organophosphates, pyrophosphates, polyphosphates, concentrated superphosphates, nitric phosphates, urea phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, francolite, orthophosphoric acid, and trimethyl phosphate.
A plant growth promoting composition comprising an aqueous solution of from 5% to 50% by volume methanol, 0.1 g/l to 5 g/l glycine, and an agriculturally acceptable surfactant.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.