Crop performances of chilled-plants treated with GLK-6803

Chilling, in plant stress, usually refers to an environment with temperatures low enough to cause plant tissue damage, but not low enough to cause freezing of tissue water. Many economic crops such as rice, maize, and vegetables are sensitive to chilling. Their growth and development can be drastically hindered by chilling. Consequently, quantity, as well as quality, of the yield are reduced if it is not a total crop failure. The impact of chilling injury on crop production is just as great as freezing. Numerous efforts have been made to overcome the chilling problem in agriculture, for example, breeding for early vigor in maize, modifying cultural practices to enable survival of tornato seedlings after early transplanting in the field, or application of chemicals to alleviate chilling injury in rice. In 1989, the Laboratory ofPlant Hardiness at the University of Minnesota initiated an effort to examine the potenti al of GLK-8903, a chemical having no growth-regulating property, in protecting vegetable plants from chilling injury.