Kelpinor's product doesn’t just boost growth—it smartly suppresses it when needed, giving plants the perfect balance to handle stress 🪴 . How? We have no clue. That’s the beauty of the biostimulant black box—nobody knows exactly how, but it works like magic.

A few days ago, while reading "Concerted Plant Growth and Defense Through Targeted Phytohormone Crosstalk Modification" by Johnston et al., our researchers ran into a fascinating hypotheses. We know that some phytohormones—like abscisic acid, jasmonic acid, and salicylic acid—can suppress plant growth as a defense mechanism. Since Kelpinor’s suspension, made with our slow cold milling process, preserves these phytohormones, I had to ask:Why haven’t we seen growth suppression in our stress trials? Instead, we’ve always observed enhanced growth under stress.

Biostimulants work through a black box of messy interactions, with bioactive compounds interacting in ways we don’t fully understand.But the idea that the same product could boost growth in one case and suppress it in another? That was worth testing.So, we ran a low-light stress experiment on Centaurea cyanus (cornflower), germinating seeds under just 5–10 µmol/m²/s of light. The treatment group received a 20-minute seed soak with a 0.3% dilution of Kelpinor Suspension Ascophyllum.

The results were a complete plot twist:Kelpinor’s suspension wasn’t boosting growth this time—it was suppressing it!Cue a brief identity crisis (especially for our brilliant engineers, who still think "cell culture" refers to phone etiquette  ):'Did we just disprove our product?'Meanwhile, the reaction was simple for the biologists: 'This is a breakthrough'.

Here’s why: Under low light, the hypocotyl (or seedling stem) stretches excessively in a desperate attempt to reach better light. This makes them weak, fragile and energy-drained. But a 20-minute seed soak in Kelpinor Suspension Ascophyllum stopped this extreme elongation, producing sturdier, healthier seedlings with stronger stems.This confirms that growth-regulating phytohormones in Kelpinor's biostimulants act when the plant needs them, reinforcing one of our core hypotheses: Kelpinor’s biostimulants promote balanced growth by fine-tuning hormonal regulation and enhancing stress resilience.

The  picture shows the stark difference in hypocotyl length after 5 days of germination

And we’re not stopping here—our ongoing research project with SINTEF will help us map the phytohormones in our biostimulants more accurately.