Compositions and methods for improving a plant's resistance to biotic and/or abiotic stress are provided, including methods of seed production comprising: (a) providing a plant or part thereof； (b) exposing the plant to a composition comprising one or more defense activators present in a concentration ranging from 0.01 mg/l to 25 g/l or from 0.25 nM to 10 mM and chosen from jasmonates, salicylic acid, chitin, acibenzolar-S-methyl, harpins, microbes, and one or more defense peptides comprising a consensus amino acid sequence:wherein:X is an amino acid chosen from Alanine (A), Cysteine (C), Aspartic acid (D), Glutamic acid (E), Phenylalanine (F), Glycine (G), Histidine (H), Isoleucine (I), Lysine (K), Leucine (L), Methionine (M), Asparagine (N), Proline (P), Glutamine (Q), Arginine (R), Serine (S), Threonine (T), Valine (V), Tryptophan (W), or Tyrosine (Y)； (c) growing the plant to produce developed seeds from the plant comprising defenses induced by the defense activators.
