Has anyone looked into treating orchids with a product called "Harpin" with
a trade name Messenger made by EDEN Bioscience. Info on their website
(www.edenbio.com) sounds very intriguing. There is reference to an article
in the journal SCIENCE that indicates that the harpin protein can be very
beneficial to certain plants. Disease resistance, increased plant growth
etc.

Thanks

Charles VanDyke
cvandyke [at] andrew.cmu.edu

I haven't tried it yet (have a few sample packets laying around.) I heard a
presentation from one of their reps at a dahlia society meeting. It sounds
like there is some possibility it could be useful. I think they isolated a
protein from a fungus that attacks plants and when the plants senses the
protein it is supposed to trigger more growth. One thing that turned me off
was that their advertising at the time had the standard testimonials like "I
sprayed this on my plants and every orchid I owned bloomed withing two
weeks" which is complete bulls**t. The rep mentioned that they had a newer
product with a couple additional proteins because the original protein
didn't provide any benefit to one of the major crops (corn? cotton? I can't
remember, have some notes buried somewhere around here but that may take a
couple days to find). The three-protein formulation was being sold as a
foliar fertilizer, can't remember the exact name right now.
-danny

"cvandyke" <cvandyke [at] andrew.cmu.edu> wrote in message
news:CDE158C65FFD9283BD94A4B2 [at] [192.168.1.47]...
> Has anyone looked into treating orchids with a product called "Harpin"
> with a trade name Messenger made by EDEN Bioscience. Info on their
> website (www.edenbio.com) sounds very intriguing. There is reference to an
> article in the journal SCIENCE that indicates that the harpin protein can
> be very beneficial to certain plants. Disease resistance, increased plant
> growth etc.
>
> Thanks
>
> Charles VanDyke
> cvandyke [at] andrew.cmu.edu

I've read about it before, and thought it might be worth playing with, even
though it isn't listed for orchids.

Eden sells individual-gallon packets for $3 (the shelf life is 3 weeks after
opening, so don't get a bigger package).

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"danny" <foo [at] notbar.net> wrote in message
news:5v7%f.8719$yh.4013 [at] bignews3.bellsouth.net...
>I haven't tried it yet (have a few sample packets laying around.) I heard
>a presentation from one of their reps at a dahlia society meeting. It
>sounds like there is some possibility it could be useful. I think they
>isolated a protein from a fungus that attacks plants and when the plants
>senses the protein it is supposed to trigger more growth. One thing that
>turned me off was that their advertising at the time had the standard
>testimonials like "I sprayed this on my plants and every orchid I owned
>bloomed withing two weeks" which is complete bulls**t. The rep mentioned
>that they had a newer product with a couple additional proteins because the
>original protein didn't provide any benefit to one of the major crops
>(corn? cotton? I can't remember, have some notes buried somewhere around
>here but that may take a couple days to find). The three-protein
>formulation was being sold as a foliar fertilizer, can't remember the exact
>name right now.
> -danny
>
> "cvandyke" <cvandyke [at] andrew.cmu.edu> wrote in message
> news:CDE158C65FFD9283BD94A4B2 [at] [192.168.1.47]...
>> Has anyone looked into treating orchids with a product called "Harpin"
>> with a trade name Messenger made by EDEN Bioscience. Info on their
>> website (www.edenbio.com) sounds very intriguing. There is reference to
>> an article in the journal SCIENCE that indicates that the harpin protein
>> can be very beneficial to certain plants. Disease resistance, increased
>> plant growth etc.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Charles VanDyke
>> cvandyke [at] andrew.cmu.edu
>
>

On 2006-04-12 09:33:57 -0400, cvandyke <cvandyke [at] andrew.cmu.edu> said:

> Has anyone looked into treating orchids with a product called "Harpin"
> with a trade name Messenger made by EDEN Bioscience. Info on their
> website (www.edenbio.com) sounds very intriguing. There is reference to
> an article in the journal SCIENCE that indicates that the harpin
> protein can be very beneficial to certain plants. Disease resistance,
> increased plant growth etc.
>
> Thanks
>
> Charles VanDyke
> cvandyke [at] andrew.cmu.edu


Ralph Snodsmith swears by the stuff. Haven't tried it yet personally.