Energy In Plants and The NuWay Process

Understanding and managing plant energy forms the basis of the NuWay approach to achieve high quality crops. This process aims to ensure the optimal availability and use of energy within the plant and the surrounding ecosystem to ensure that plants are healthier and soils are allowed to regenerate.

All biochemical and biological processes within a plant and its supporting ecological environment are dependent upon the flow of energy. This process starts when light-energy from the sun is converted in the chlorophyll (green) containing parts of plants via photosynthesis into carbohydrates. The process continues with the production of lipids, proteins and other metabolites. The complex communication system of plant generated hormones and the supporting microbial community is another outcome of the energy flow system.

We can influence the way that plants channel this energy toward different plant processes that we may find more beneficial despite adverse environmental conditions that may select for a different outcome. This redirection of energy may however be a costly exercise for the plant and care must be taken to give the correct support for the plant to ensure the success of such manipulations.

The processes in the plant that use energy are mainly, vegetative and reproductive growth, resistance to pests, diseases and stress conditions as well as feeding the biology that associates with the plant. The limiting factor for the energy reserves is the amount of sunlight that can be harvested in any given period. However, in recent years research has indicated that a healthy soil with a higher carbon status and diverse biological community can act as a battery that stores energy that becomes available when plants and microbes need more energy.

Certain plant processes cannot function optimally when others are up-regulated for whatever reason. For instance, it is counterproductive to stimulate both the SAR and ISR metabolic ways of resistance induction. The plant automatically down-regulates the one process in favour of the other. The same is also true for the bigger groupings of energy users but mainly because the energy available to drive these processes are limited. Thus energy distribution needs to be balanced in order to work optimally.

Plant stressors like drought, low oxygen levels in the soil (over-irrigation), long periods of cloud cover, intense heat and radiation, frost, hail, pests, diseases etc. are responsible for leaking energy from the plant-system as a whole. NuWay can assist to overcome some of these losses and help the plant rejuvenate quicker after these periods of energy usage.

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