A beautiful home starts with a well-cultivated lawn. But the benefits of a healthy, lush lawn go far beyond beauty. It can keep your outdoor living space cooler, improve the air quality in your home, and fight off allergies often brought on by weeds.
That said, you don’t need to kill yourself mowing twice a week just to maintain short thick grass. Instead, you can incorporate growth regulators into your routine to cut down on your lawn’s maintenance needs. Basically, growth regulators are designed to stimulate a function in grass, shrubs, flowers, and trees that slows down growth.
Your grass does fine in all aspects but doesn’t grow as fast. That means you don’t mow as much and still get a terrific-looking lawn all season.
Like most products, plant growth regulators (PGR) are formulated differently. So, you want to know what to look for to achieve the best results. So, what active ingredients can you typically find in a plant growth regulator?
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Trinexapac-ethyl
This active compound is among the most popular and effective PGRs in the market. It’s classified as an ethyl ester and is formed by condensing tranexamic with ethanol. The resulting combination works as a gibberellin biosynthesis inhibitor.
Basically, gibberellins are a type of plant growth regulator that stimulates cell elongation. They make the stem grow taller and fasten the flowering and fruit ripening process.
By inhibiting the function of gibberellins, trinexapac-ethyl slows down warm and cold turf grass elongation, keeping it short and thick for longer. You can find this compound in the brand name Primo Maxx, a product that can reduce your mowing work by 50%. Plus, it gives you a green, dense, more resilient lawn.
Chlormequat
Aside from trinexapac-ethyl, you can find plant growth regulators that use chlormequat as the active ingredient. Ideal for early production phases of the grass, this compound usually results in short internodes and thick dark green leaves. It also increases branching for a thicker lawn.
Products that contain chlormequat can be applied to the roots or leaves; however, given that the compound is water-soluble, uptake can be a little slow in the leaves, which tends to be waxy to prevent high evaporation. That is unless it’s the wet season.
Daminozide
This is another key ingredient in plant growth regulators. Like the first two, it slows down internode elongation, resulting in more compact grass with stronger stems and darker foliage. In addition, it can encourage more developed and resilient root systems and lateral branching.
However, daminozide is also water-soluble, so absorption through the waxy leaf cuticle is often slow. It’s, therefore, best applied during high humidity or in the evenings.
Prohexadione
This active ingredient is more potent than most of the others on the list, which means you have to be careful with application to preserve the integrity of your lawn. You don’t want to retard your plant growth permanently or bleach petals if you are applying on flowers. That said, it also slows down plant elongation and can help achieve compact growth, thus reducing your mowing frequency.
The Best Plant Growth Regulator Gives You a Nice-Looking Lawn for Half the Effort
Mowing is one of those tasks you must do, whether you enjoy it or not. Often twice a week. But with PGRs, you can cut that down to just once a week and still maintain a lush admirable lawn. This saves you tons of time, and if you hire professionals to mow for you, it can save you money.
