Due to climate change, exceptional heat and drought events in the summer of 2023 caused great damage to Alberta crop production and an economic loss. In this case, the emerging plant biostimulant (PB) technology is becoming popular and being selected as an excellent option to improve the production of winter wheat, which is grown under heat and drought stresses because of its environmental-friendly properties. 

This website project is an explanation of the experiment that tested and evaluated the effectiveness of a newly developed PB named Project-X by the manufacturer Acadian Plant Health (APH); this PB has the function of enhancing the winter wheat species’ heat and drought tolerance to improve its production. This PB evaluation experiment has four treatments, and each treatment has different PB application methods. All winter wheat samples in four treatments experienced a 7-day heat and drought stressing period, but plant samples in treatment one didn’t get any PB application. Treatment two had a single PB application when plants reached the BBCH 21 growing stage; treatment three also had a single PB application but occurred at the BBCH 45-53 growing stage. Treatment four had PB applications at both growing stages. 

Plants were hand-harvested as they reached maturity (94 days after the seeding date). Measurements included plant height (cm), plant dry biomass (g), number of spikes per plant, and number of seeds per plant. These data will be analyzed visually and statistically to determine the impact of Project-X on plant growth and production, further evaluating the effectiveness of this new PB. 

By the end of this experiment, researchers found that the Project-X can be used to improve the production of winter wheat, which is grown under heat and drought stress. Applying the PB at different growing stages affects the plant production outcome differently. Besides, multiple applications of Project-X can only improve the production outcome of some aspects of winter wheat, so the multiple application method is not always the recommonded one being used.