AGRONOMY FIELD NOTE • JULY 2026
Every producer has seen it. Two fields get hit by the same hailstorm. The same heat wave. The same flooding event. A week later, one crop looks like it’s bouncing back while the other remains pale, stalled, and struggling.
Why? The answer often isn’t the stress event itself—it’s how the plant responds during the days that follow. That response is shaped by root health, soil biology, nutrient balance, and water movement long before the stress ever occurs. Put simply: resilience isn’t built during the storm. It’s built through your soil management strategy.
PLANTS HAVE AN IMMUNE SYSTEM OF THEIR OWN
Unlike animals, plants can’t run from danger. Instead, they rely on a sophisticated network of hormones, chemical signals, and defense responses to detect stress and decide how to react. When a crop experiences hail, insect feeding, waterlogging, heat, drought, or nutrient stress, the plant immediately shifts from growth mode into survival mode.
Growth slows. Energy is redirected. Resources that would normally go toward flowering, pod set, grain fill, or root expansion are temporarily diverted toward defense and repair. In many cases, the largest yield losses occur not during the stress event itself, but during the recovery period that follows.
MEET THE PLANT’S STRESS HORMONES
Just like humans produce stress hormones, plants do too. One of the primary stress hormones is abscisic acid (ABA). During drought, heat, salinity, or flooding stress, ABA levels rise rapidly. The plant responds by closing stomata to conserve water. This response in turn slows growth, as stomata are an integral part of the air and water exchange of plants. Essentially, the plant begins restricting gas exchange to conserve resources—much like a person instinctively holding their breath during a stressful situation
Another important hormone is ethylene gas. Often called the “stress hormone,” ethylene production increases when plants experience flooding, physical damage, insect feeding, or disease pressure. Too much ethylene can accelerate leaf aging, flower abortion, and tissue senescence.
While these hormones (and many others) help plants survive, they often come at a cost: reduced growth and reduced yield potential. The key question then becomes how quickly a plant can shift from survival mode back into growth mode once the stress has passed.
| FUN FACT! Ethylene hormone is responsible for turning your bananas brown (and what makes your bananas become sweeter!) by breaking down chlorophyll, converting starches into sugars and softening cell walls. Ethylene is also autocatalytic, meaning that ethylene stimulates the production of more ethylene. This is why storing brown bananas near green ones will accelerate ripening. |
THE RECOVERY WINDOW
Once the stress has passed, the plant enters what agronomists often call the recovery window.
During this period, the crop must:
- Repair damaged cells and tissues
- Restore photosynthesis
- Re-establish nutrient movement
- Rebuild root activity
- Continue flower, pod, and seed development
The faster a plant completes these tasks, the more yield potential it can protect. This is especially critical during reproductive growth stages, when crops have little time to recover before important yield-building opportunities are lost.
WHY SOME CROPS RECOVER FASTER
Recovery is heavily influenced by plant hormone balance.
Auxins stimulate root initiation and root growth. A strong root system allows plants to access more water and nutrients, helping them recover after periods of stress.
Cytokinins, often referred to as the plant kingdom’s “fountain of youth” hormone, promote cell division, delay leaf aging, and support flower retention, pod set, and seed development.
In simple terms, while stress hormones tell the plant to survive, hormones like auxins and cytokinins help signal when it’s time to start growing again.
This is where regenerative farming systems often separate themselves. Healthy soils support larger root systems, improved nutrient cycling, greater microbial activity, and stronger soil structure. Together, these create conditions that help crops recover more quickly from environmental stress.
In addition to building the soil’s natural ability to support hormone production and plant signaling, growers can also supplement these processes through targeted crop inputs. The Johnston’s Regenerative lineup of plant growth regulators and bioenhancement products—including EZ-GRO™, TeraSix FieldEdge™, and AnneMaxx™ technologies—are designed to support plant hormone activity, biological function, root development, and stress recovery during critical growth stages.
The goal isn’t to eliminate stress—that’s impossible in agriculture. The goal is to build crops and soils capable of responding, recovering, and continuing to produce when stress inevitably arrives.
| THE BOTTOM LINE Every field experiences stress. The difference between average crops and exceptional crops often comes down to what happens next. The fastest-recovering crops are usually the ones that maintain photosynthesis, protect reproductive development, and continue building yield after the stress event has passed. In a year filled with hail, flooding, insects, and sudden heat, resilience isn’t just a buzzword—it’s becoming one of the most valuable yield traits on the farm. |
WORKING WITH YOUR JOHNSTON’S REGENERATIVE AGRONOMIST
Resilience isn’t built during the storm—it’s built through informed management decisions long before stress arrives. Johnston’s Regenerative combines precision soil sampling, Advanced Fertility™ recommendations, tissue testing, sap analysis, in-season scouting, and field-specific agronomic planning into one complete system. By understanding how soil health, plant nutrition, and crop physiology work together, producers can address yield-limiting factors early, improve stress tolerance, and build crops that recover faster when challenges arise.
| READY TO BOOK A FIELD VISIT? Talk to your Johnston’s Regenerative Agronomist about tissue and sap sampling, custom foliar recommendations, and in-season pest scouting. 1-844-324-7778 johnstonsregenerative.com |
