Meristem Launches Homestretch Harvest Shield™
01 June 2021, Columbus: HOMESTRETCH HARVESTSHIELD™ is thenew, unique biological and foliar nutrition product announced here today by Meristem Crop Performanceas the latestaddition to their robust HOMESTRETCHfamilyoffoliar nutrition products.
“Given current commodity prices, our farmer-customers are askingusfor more solutions to feed the crop all season long and help them gainhigher yields,” saidMitch Eviston, founder and CEO of Meristem.“We are thrilled to announcethe addition of HARVESTSHIELD tothe HOMESTRETCHline-up. We now have seven top quality options for high-yield farmers.”Eviston also took the opportunity to stress Meristem’s commitment to helping farmers.“We’ve held our prices to make it easier for farmers to win with foliar applications,” he said, pointing out that farmers can still getHOMESTRETCH™ for less than$6 per acre
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“We feel foliar nutrition is a key ingredient to raising a successful crop,” saidNathan Forkner, who grows “a few thousand” acres of corn and beans near Richards, Missouri. “We used HOMESTRETCH ULTRA™last year and were pretty happy with the results we’ve seen with that product.It tank-mixed well and we didn’t have any problems whatsoever.” Eviston saidgrowers like Forkner are seeing results with all of Meristem’s foliar products because of their unique, highly-solubleformulations. “These molecules are formulated for better nutrient uptake and movement in the plant,” heexplained. “They are designed to mix well and not get bound up with other chemistry. The micronutrients, like zinc, actually help reduce crop stress.”
Crop stress is an issue that comes with high-yield crop production according to Larry Fiene, field agronomist and founder of Planet Earth Agronomy, Middleton, Wisc. HesaidHARVESTSHIELD and foliar nutrients help solve this plant-stress problem by supplementing the plant’s own abilities, whether it’s corn or soybeans. “Higher plant populations and more intensive practices will create more stress for the plant,” says Fiene. “The special amino acids and other components of HARVESTSHIELD help the plant produce more of its own defensive compounds to cope with the adversity it’s facing, whether it’s heat, drought, nutrient deficiency or pesticide stress.”
HARVESTSHIELD™, said Fiene, has components vital tostress mitigation andcell division. Different components to the product help the plant in different ways.
Polyphenols protect the plant from oxidation caused by environmental stresses or stresses on the plant during rapid growth stages.
Auxins are known to stimulate cell division.
Betaines keep water content stable in plant cells.
Arginine is an amino acid building block for polyamines. Polyamine production increases during times of environmental stress including drought, heat and high salinity levels in soil.
Tryptophan is an amino acid building block for Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and assists plants in cell expansion and cell division.
All of it can add up to stronger plants and higher yields,said Fiene. “In corn ourstress-plot data is showing yield advantages of 7to 10 bushel per acre at the low end,” he said.“In high-yield situations we’ve seen combine yield monitors show an advantage of 10 to 20 bushel per acre.”More information on the product is available at MeristemAg.com.
