Te European Biostimulant Industry Council (EBIC; https://biostimulants.eu) defines biostimulants as:


“Agricultural biostimulants include diverse formulations of compounds, substances, and other products that are applied to plants or soils to regulate and enhance the


crop’s physiological processes, thus making them more efficient; biostimulants act on plant physiology through different pathways than nutrients to improve crop vigor, yields, quality, and post harvest shelf life/conservation.”


Te EBIC also has a functional definition of plant biostimulants as follows:


“ A material which contains substance(s) and/or microorganisms whose function, when applied to plants or the rhizosphere, is to stimulate natural processes to benefit nutrient uptake, nutrient efficiency, tolerance to abiotic stress, and/or crop quality, independently of its nutrient content.”


Of note, the EBIC’s functional definition expands beyond the plant to also include the soil (e.g., rhizosphere). Te Association of American Plant Food Control Officials (AAPFCO; https://aapfco.org) defines biostimulants as:


“Any substance or compound other than primary (e.g., N, P, and K),


secondary (e.g., Ca, Mg, S), and microplant nutrients (e.g., Fe, Cu, etc.), that can be demonstrated by scientific research to be beneficial to


one or more plant species when applied exogenously; …a substance or material, with the exception of nutrients or pesticides, which has the capacity to beneficially modify plant growth. ”


Of note, the ASPFCO definition of biostimulants refers to the term “beneficial substance.”


Biostimulants are often categorized by “what they are” (e.g., how are these substances or compounds or component materials described chemically or physically?) and “what they do” (e.g., how do these substances or compounds benefit the turfgrass plant or the turfgrass soil/rootzone?). Te turfgrass practitioner would benefit from knowing what a biostimulant is actually composed of, and how the biostimulant product benefits turfgrass management programs.


Terefore, a proposed classification method for listing biostimulants in turfgrass is presented in Table 1. Biostimulants are listed as primarily targeting the plant or soil/rhizosphere, then further organized by category to describe their composition, followed by active or functional ingredients (e.g., compounds, substances, other descriptive terms) listed within each category. Examples of common names for biostimulant products are listed for each category.


TPI Turf News July/August 2024


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