NEWS IN BRIEF
Stress-blocking plant technology receives green light in California
AgroFresh provides pre- and post-harvest food preservation and growth enhancing solutions for produce farmers worldwide.
The patented-protected technology, LandSpring, can be applied as a liquid via a spray system to melons, tomatoes, and other crops to guard against environmental conditions such as heat, cold, salinity, and UV rays, resulting in higher yields, AgroFresh claims.
The technology recently received regulatory approval for use on tomato crops in California, which represents approximately 80% of the US tomato market, according to the company.
Growers in most parts of the US have used LandSpring since it debuted in the US market in 2016.
"The benefit for our customers is even greater, as our pre-harvest technology provides advantages from the early growth stage, ultimately resulting in superior produce quality, loss reduction and a bigger return," said AgroFresh CEO Jordi Ferre.
How does it work?
LandSpring technology is classified as a plant-growth regulator (PGR) for pre-transplant used on seedlings to help the plant withstand transplanting and other natural stressors when applied one to five days before transplanting.
The active ingredient in LandSpring is 1-Methylcyclopropene (1-MCP), which closely resembles ethylene (a hormone involved in numerous aspects of growth, development, and responses to biotic and abiotic stresses in plants) allowing it to preferentially bind to ethylene receptors within the plant when applied ahead of a stress event.
As a result of application, LandSpring prevents the ethylene signals that would prompt a plant to reduce growth processes in response to stress.
Because of the use of 1-MCP, LandSpring, it does not qualify as organic, according to the USDA Organic Certification Program.
"Unlike many other PGRs, LandSpring technology does not directly change the plant’s metabolism. It simply blocks ethylene from reaching receptors and therefore reduces the plant’s negative response to stress factors," the company said.
