Here is the full article I found today about a new product. I'm simply reporting about it, and wonder if anyone else has heard of it or encountered the chemical involved.
"The active ingredient of Messenger is a protein called harpin."
What is harpin and how does it work? Could this be considered organic?
Way down in the article you'll find an offer for a free trial sample.
http://www.heraldnet.com/homeandgarden/story.cfm?file=04012218060715.cfm
From the Herald, in Everett, Washington:
Published: Thursday, January 22, 2004
Booster shots for your garden
Messenger delivers healthy, robust plants
By Debra Prinzing
Special to The Herald
A Bothell-based company is using a scientific discovery about how plants work to boost the performance of residential gardens and agricultural crops alike.
The product is called Messenger. You dilute it in water and, using a pump sprayer, drench your roses, tomatoes or perennials with the natural liquid solution.
According to scientists at Eden Bioscience Corp., a publicly traded plant health technology company, the product helps trigger a plant's inherent systems of growth, disease resistance and reproduction. It's not a pesticide, fertilizer or growth hormone, they explain. But it does give plants a boost to grow faster, bigger and healthier.
The potential of Messenger to enhance blooms and the overall performance of roses was so exciting to consulting rosarians with the American Rose Society that they've endorsed the product. The national organization is selling Messenger to members through the their Web site,
www.ars.org.
For the rest of us, here's a chance to try an EPA-approved product that won't harm plants, people, pets or the environment.
The active ingredient of Messenger is a protein called harpin. In the late 1980s, Zhongmin Wei, a Cornell University scientist, discovered that when a plant detects this naturally occurring protein, an early-warning system triggers the plant's protective systems. As a result, the plant acts as if it's under attack. Since there's no disease to fight off, the plant responds with increased growth and vigor.
Wei, who is now Eden's chief scientific officer, likens the use of Messenger to the way humans rely on preventive medicine. "Messenger is a new concept. Prior to this, (the scientific world) has always invented something to kill something else," he said. Messenger triggers the plant's inherent ability to fight off disease, eliminating the need for a pesticide to kill an aphid or a fungicide to fight off a disease. Wei likened this approach to some of the preventive practices of Asian medicine.
The Environmental Protection Agency approved Messenger for commercial use in April 2000. While there are many applications for large-scale agricultural use, Eden also saw the potential for home gardeners, said Jeff McClellan, Eden's market manager for the home and garden sector.
"This is the first time science has figured out a way to unlock the potential of a plant," McClellan said. "The plant has these mechanisms in place, but now you can activate them before the stresses arrive."
Trials in Eden's "environmental growth chambers" illustrate the way Messenger works given variables like light, humidity and temperature. In one area, Nora Linderoth, a molecular biologist, studies how plant genes interact with the harpin protein and bind to the plant's receptors. She has been monitoring rice plants to observe how, when and where they respond to the application of harpin.
In Eden's light-filled greenhouse, quality control scientist Zhiwen Lan runs side-by-side trials of both common houseplants and agricultural crops. In one experiment, four flats of impatiens were arranged to assess Messenger's performance. The control grouping of plants received normal waterings; three other groups were either drenched, sprayed or drenched and sprayed with Messenger. While it took eight days for buds on the untreated impatiens to bloom, the treated plants bloomed within two or three days.
Bloom enhancement is one of the most noticeable outcomes of a Messenger application, McClellan explained. "We're also seeing the effect that plant health has on the length and viability of blooms -- blooms seem to last longer."
The best way to use Messenger is to spray it, according to the Eden researchers. Pouring a solution directly onto the soil isn't as consistent, mainly because soil types vary, McClellan said. "But houseplants are a good example of when drenching does work -- because potting soil is pretty consistent."
Eden began selling packets of Messenger for the home gardener in 2003 and expects to expand distribution through some garden centers this spring. Currently, the $19.98 package can make three 3-gallon applications (to cover up to 3,000 square feet of plants). Within the next month, the company will introduce a $9.99 package of three 1-gallon applications to cover up to 1,000 square feet. Since many pump sprayers hold 1 gallon, the smaller size made sense, McClellan said.
There are a few strategies for using and reapplying Messenger, he explained.
You can apply it to plants over a long period of time, kind of as a preventive medicine every few weeks; or you can time its application to key events in a plant's life, such as before a blooming, fruiting or ripening period.
Mid-May is often a good time to begin applying Messenger, Wei suggested. "You can use it whenever your plants are most active."
Debra Prinzing is a regular contributor to Home & Garden and the editor of "The Northwest Gardeners' Resource Directory." Send e-mail to
Dkprinzing@aol.com.
Testing Messenger
Join Home & Garden readers in running your own test of Messenger. You can order a free sample by writing to the address below. Share your results with us and we'll publish them in a future issue of Home & Garden.
Here's how to test Messenger on your plants:
1. Plant at least two or more identical plants in your garden or in containers. Keep them in separate areas (at least 10 feet apart) with identical growing conditions. Houseplants, annuals or vegetables are good plants to begin with.
2. Spray one group of plants with Messenger and leave the other group of plants as an untreated control for comparison. You can begin applications immediately after transplanting or when plants are actively growing.
3. Spray the Messenger plants at three-week intervals while leaving the other plants as the unsprayed control.
4. Continue all your other growing regimes, including fertilizing and watering.
5. Note the differences between the plants after several applications of Messenger. Look for foliage quality, disease and insect susceptibility, rate and timing of blooms or fruiting. On woody plants and perennial plants, you may not notice the full benefit of Messenger in the first growing period.
6. Let us know how your plants performed. Results will be published in a June issue of Home & Garden.
Obtain your sample by writing to:
Messenger Sample/Herald
P.O. Box 758
Chadds Ford, PA 19317
Be sure to include your name, address, telephone and email so we can follow up with you.
Learn more about Messenger
You can read a section with Frequently Asked Questions about Messenger at
www.edenbio.com.
Where to find Messenger:
Emery's Garden
2829 164th St. SW
Lynnwood
425-743-4555
Wight's Home & Garden
50th and 196th SW
Lynnwood
425-775-3636
McDaniel's Do It Center
510 2nd St.
Snohomish
360-568-1544
Molbak's
13625 NE 175th St.
Woodinville
425-483-5000
Coast-to-Coast
17150 W. Main St.
Monroe
360-794-7564