Copper-Based Liquid Plant Defence Formulation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods are inadequate in reducing the incidence and severity of diseases in plants, particularly grapevine wood, and in enhancing their metabolic processes and resistance to biotic and abiotic stress factors.
Innovation Solution
A liquid formulation combining menadione sodium bisulphite (MSB), copper sulphate, sodium lignosulphonate, and essential plant amino acids, which facilitates copper assimilation and activates plant defensive mechanisms, improving metabolic processes and resistance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional disease control methods are used, then disease incidence is reduced to some extent, but the severity of symptoms and metabolic process enhancement remain inadequate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple active ingredients (menadione sodium bisulphite, copper sulphate, sodium lignosulphonate, and amino acids) into a single formulation that simultaneously provides disease control and metabolic enhancement. This merging of functions into one composition resolves the contradiction by achieving both reliability in disease control and productivity in metabolic process enhancement without requiring separate applications.
Solution Approach 2:
The formulation uses a composite structure with menadione sodium bisulphite as the core active ingredient for inducing resistance, copper sulphate for enzymatic catalysis and pathogen interference, sodium lignosulphonate for complexing and stability, and amino acids for nutritional support. This composite material approach enables the formulation to address both disease control and metabolic enhancement simultaneously.
2Reliability
If copper concentration is increased to interfere with spore germination and enhance resistance, then plant defence is improved, but copper assimilation and utilization efficiency decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces sodium lignosulphonate and amino acids as intermediary substances that complex with copper ions, improving their solubility, stability, and assimilation by plants. These intermediaries facilitate copper uptake and transport while maintaining effective concentrations for disease control, thus resolving the contradiction between enhancing plant defence and improving copper assimilation efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The formulation changes the chemical parameters of copper by converting it from simple copper sulphate into complexed forms with lignosulphonate and amino acids. This parameter change improves copper's bioavailability and assimilation efficiency while maintaining its biocidal activity against pathogens, thereby resolving the contradiction between defence enhancement and assimilation efficiency.
3Reliability
If menadione sodium bisulphite is applied to induce plant resistance, then self-defence mechanisms are activated, but the formulation lacks components for optimal assimilation and metabolic stimulation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges menadione sodium bisulphite (for resistance induction) with copper sulphate (for enzymatic reactions), sodium lignosulphonate (for complexing and stability), and essential amino acids (for metabolic stimulation and nutritional support) into a single integrated formulation. This combination resolves the contradiction by simultaneously achieving self-defence activation and metabolic reaction stimulation.
Solution Approach 2:
The formulation achieves multi-functionality where menadione sodium bisulphite induces resistance, copper sulphate catalyzes enzymatic reactions and interferes with pathogen germination, sodium lignosulphonate improves stability and assimilation, and amino acids provide nutritional support and metabolic stimulation. This universal approach resolves the contradiction by making the formulation capable of both defence activation and metabolic enhancement.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The formulation effectively reduces disease symptoms, enhances plant resistance, and increases crop yield by stimulating metabolic reactions and improving plant appearance under adverse conditions.
Implementation Method 1
MSB is a water-soluble addition compound of the vitamin K group (2-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone) belonging to a new class of exogenous inducers of plant resistance against different diseases and viruses and against a number of stress factors
Implementation Method 2
The eliciting-activating action of MSB on the natural defence mechanisms of plant is due, in part, to the increase in endogenous indoleacetic acid levels in plants, together with an increase in biosynthesis of phytoalexins and of different defensive-antioxidant proteins
Implementation Method 3
Copper, which acts as a catalyst of numerous enzymatic reactions, is part of the prosthetic group of a number of proteins such as ascorbic acid, phenol, or cytochrome oxidases
Implementation Method 4
Copper, which acts as a catalyst of numerous enzymatic reactions, is part of the prosthetic group of a number of proteins such as ascorbic acid, phenol, or cytochrome oxidases
Implementation Method 5
Furthermore, copper alone is capable of interfering in the germination of spores when it is at concentrations somewhat higher than usual in the plant tissue
Implementation Method 6
thereby facilitating copper complexing with lignosulphonate, as well as, though to a lesser extent, with amino acids, thereby facilitating the incorporation or the capacity to absorb the copper supplied by part of the plant
Implementation Method 7
thereby facilitating copper complexing with lignosulphonate, as well as, though to a lesser extent, with amino acids
Implementation Method 8
it produces greater mobilisation of copper in the plant, allowing its assimilation in a rapid, effective, and abundant manner
Data Source
Figure 1
AI summary
The invention provides a copper-based liquid formulation enhancing plant self-defence comprising between 10 and 15% of sodium lignosulphonate, between 15 and 25% of copper sulphate, between 0.20 and 0.40% of MSB and between 1.30 and 1.75% of free amino acids of plant origin, the rest being water, the percentages being expressed by weight with respect to 100% by weight of the final liquid formulation, as well as its application by fertigation, drip irrigation, by spraying, or by distributing it in areas close to the plant in surface irrigation.