ChitoSal – Learn

Achieve Dramatic results with just one application every two weeks!

ChitoSal features two highly bioactive plant effectors that trigger two separate pathways within the plant.  Since our unique approach has allowed us to create a product of incomparable effectiveness, it only needs to be applied once every two weeks to achieve amazing results. Therefore, growers can produce superior crops by using a very small amount. A little goes a long way.

ChitoSal is compatible with all growing media and all base nutrients. It can be applied as a foliar spray, or watered directly into the root zone.

The first application is recommended one week before transition to flower, and ChitoSal is then applied once every two weeks throughout the flowering stage. For best results, we recommend foliar spraying the first two applications, followed by watering into the root zone once every two weeks until harvest.

What Are Plant Effectors?

A plant effector is usually a small molecule, one that can be beneficial for a plant by inducing or changing certain behaviours. When effector molecules bind to specific receptors within a plant, they can regulate the plant’s biological activity. This can lead to an increase in enzyme activity, specific gene expression, and cell signalling.

ChitoSal uses two powerful plant effectors in order to trigger a number of beneficial changes:

  • Increasing the plant’s tolerance to abiotic stresses such as salt, heat and drought
  • Increasing photosynthetic activity
  • Triggering flowering and fruit yield
  • Inducing the bioaccumulation of plant defense compounds such as terpenes and resin
  • Development of physical defense structures such as thicker cell wall development and increased trichome production

What is Oligochitosan?

Fungi and insects are some of the most common pests that attack plants. As a result, plants have evolved the ability to detect the presence of insects and fungi as part of their natural defense strategies. Plants use special receptors on the surfaces of their leaves to detect the exoskeletons of insects and the cell walls of fungi.

Oligochitosan are miniscule pieces of exoskeleton. That is why plants recognize the presence of Oligochitosan molecules as a pathogen attack, which triggers a series of defensive responses and induces beneficial changes within the plant.

It is important to note insect and fungi exoskeletons are made of chitin – not Oligochitosan. Chitin is not soluble in water, thus it has low bioactivity and is impossible to formulate into a liquid. To resolve this issue, we apply our proprietary manufacturing process to modify the chitin in order to obtain plant available Oligochitosan molecules, which are far more effective at triggering a reaction within the plant. Our unique production process allows us to create Oligochitosan, the most bioactive chitin-derived molecule possible.

What is Salicin?

Salicin is another well-known plant effector, but plants do not register it in the same manner as Oligochitosan. Salicin skips the first steps of the reaction as it does not need to bind to a receptor in order to trigger a cascade reaction. Salicin is the first step in the molecular chain reaction, a very small quantity will activate a plant’s defense response.

Importantly, Salicin does not work on the same pathway as Oligochitosan, which means their effects complement rather than oppose one another. ChitoSal therefore induces the formation of many desirable compounds, which give rise to a rich complexity in plants leading to higher quality crops.

Keep in mind, Salicin is not the actual molecule that is active in the plant. The active molecule in the plants’ biochemical pathway is actually salicylic acid.  Salicin is simply a natural form of salicylic acid found in many plant species such as Willow trees. Nonetheless, plants recognize Salicin as a precursor and turn it into salicylic acid. This allows ChitoSal to trigger dramatic effects within the plant while remaining an all-natural, certified organic product.