New product helps crops weather environmental stresses

JOHNSTON, Ill. — A new biological product that its company says protects row crops from environmentally stressful conditions like drought, heat, excess salinity and excess sunlight will be widely available in 2023.

Sosdia Stress, Corteva Agriscience’s new abiotic stress mitigator, allows plants to focus on growth and productivity — instead of on cell repair in challenging conditions — for optimum yield potential.

Sosdia Stress contains naturally occurring ingredients like proline and potassium, which help crops react to stress similarly to plants with higher levels of osmolytes.

Osmolytes are naturally occurring compounds that protect cell integrity, water balance and metabolism during stressful conditions.

“Think of it this way: Cacti are plants with naturally high levels of osmolytes. Sosdia Stress abiotic stress mitigator helps row crops react to stressors like heat and drought more similarly to cacti,” said Ryan Ridder, Corteva Agriscience U.S. biologicals and fungicides product manager.

“Crops treated with Sosdia Stress mitigator lose less water vapor, maximizing the conversion of water into crop biomass for better yield potential.

“Sosdia Stress can fit easily into almost any growing operation and works with several row crops, including corn, soybeans and wheat.”

Mother Nature can either really help or hinder crop production.

“There’s nothing in the market that will replace rain. We need moisture. We’re going to continue to need moisture, but if we can move that up a notch, maybe two notches, throughout the growing season to help that plant overcome drought stress, heat stress and really help the plant’s longevity,” Ridder said.

Drought Conditions

The most recent U.S. Drought Monitor summary noted crop failure and related problems due to drought conditions in Texas, eastern and central Oklahoma, and northern Arkansas, as well as dry conditions in Nebraska, southeast South Dakota, southern Missouri and pockets of Illinois, Indiana and Iowa.

“There is some pretty serious drought going on especially in our row crop space where they are trying to raise a really good corn crop but are being challenged by water,” Ridder noted.

“If we can find a way to help that plant stave off that drought, that heat stress a little bit longer and hopefully buy it another week, another two weeks to be able to catch that next rain and still meet maximum yield that our corn hybrids and soybean varieties can do out there.”

Optimal application times are generally at or slightly before reproductive growth stages, but growth benefits may be gained with applications at any time during active growth.

“As we look at the field trial data, we can see across the more challenging yield environments where drought stress is typically a little bit higher is where we see that bigger bang for return,” Ridder added.

Key Features

• Maximizes the conversion of water into crop biomass, increasing yield potential.

• Protects the plant proteins and cell membranes, preserving energy for growth instead of stress repair response.

• Protects critical grain production processes at flowering, pollination and early grain fill.

• Tank-mix compatibility with most common crop protection products.

• Has a two-year storage life.