Pasture response to gibberellins: A review and recommendations

Abstract Gibberellins are plant hormones that activate dormant enzyme systems. Applied to pasture, they can stimulate out‐of‐season growth or accelerate growth through reserve mobilisation, leaf and stem elongation, and promotion of flowering. When evaluating gibberellin as a potential pasture production stimulant, historical investigations frequently used rates ranging from 25–700 g/ha of active ingredient. Responses were found to be uneconomic, and there were often side effects including a decrease in tillering, decreased root mass, and a yield depression subsequent to the initial response. With gibberellic acid now available from China at comparatively cheaper prices than applied historically, and emerging understanding that application rates as low as 5–10 g/ha active ingredient can produce more cost‐effective responses, possibly with reduced side effects, there is renewed interest in gibberellin use to increase winter and spring pasture production or manipulate seasonality of production. Arationale f...