Why ASAP works so well on Roses
ASAP Plant Minerals™ works wonders on roses, in any condition, because it delivers bio-available trace elements back into stripped soil to maintain healthy biodynamic “alive” soil. Soil in this state facilitates the biosynthesis of proteins (enzymes). It is the combination of sugars and proteins that plants try to manufacture to maintain health, this is called glycosylation.
Until recently the only things we thought roses needed were sunlight, air circulation, good dirt, N-P-K fertilizers in different combinations at specific periods of the year, drainage and watering. But it is a common observation that a rose that is well watered throughout the summer will grow far better than one that’s treated to loads of chemical rose foods but little water. This would indicate that chemical foods are not what roses seek in the soil. This may also indicate that the different fertilizer mixes may, instead of feeding the plant, create chemically unbalanced conditions that affect the health of the soil fulvates and the rose can’t exploit the soil minerals that it needs from the soil. We now know that trace elements are what they seek to grow strong and to recover from illness; trace minerals found in ASAP that makes the soil healthy.
Healthy soil + water = healthy roses.
Roses are bio-chemically unique compared to other flowers, but all flowering plants require anthocyanin for flower petal color - shown here in ASAP fed roses; August 2006.
Anthocyanin biosynthesis involves glycosylation steps that are important for the stability of the pigment and for its aqueous solubility in vacuoles. Again, adequate water is required for this action in the plant since roses rely on a single enzyme to achieve glycosylation at two positions on the precursor molecule - glucosytransferase. Phylogenetic analysis has shown that this recently discovered enzyme may be unique to roses because glycosylation evolved into a single stabilizing step in other flowering plants. This insight into the biochemistry of roses may be why roses are delicate, respond so unusually well to adequate water yet do not react well to over fertilizing.
Botanicaly, every plant has a primary function of reproduction like any living being and this is achieved by pollinators. To attract pollinators, roses, like any flowering plant must create strong, stable anthocyanin pigments to confer intense red to blue cyanic colors on petals. Many of these compounds rely on specific minerals to make them visible in the near ultra violet spectrum. Some pollinator insects and moths have been shown to see in this spectrum, yet we cannot. Flowers that do not have these compounds cannot be seen by the pollinators. Human eyes cannot see these frequencies and to us a flower may look fine but is mysteriously not pollinated. When ASAP is applied to roses, several pollinators and lots of bees take great interest in the flowers and the flowers are very fragrant, supporting our theory that ASAP delivers something new and unique to horticulture.
There is also a resistance to cold as shown in these images at Christmas 2006, on the dark side of a building away from sun, 30 days of 20 degree nights and still new blooms and healthy green leaves.
