This invention relates to the use of a composition in low doses containing single L-amino acids, including their precursors and biologically still active metabolites, to influence the life processes of plants, such as their growth, whereby the total amount of single L-amino acids when applying the composition is at least 0.5 g/ha and at most 250 g/ha, and wherein the L-amino acids are selected from the group of glutamine, asparagine, aspartic acid, histidine, lysine, and combinations thereof with each other and/or with arginine and/or with glutamic acid.