Olive producers in Texas are continually battling losses and damages due to Cotton Root Rot (CRR) and cyclic sub-freezing temperatures. CRR is a pathogen common in the southwest United States and Mexico; it is a soil-borne fungal disease that thrives in hot and humid climates. Olive orchards affected by CRR experience regular sudden tree-losses, characterized by the wilting and subsequent death of all affected trees. Freezing temperatures in Texas (particularly in orchards north of Interstate 10 (I-10)) can have a similarly devastating effect on olive production. As described in the AgriLife Extension Texas Fruit & Nut Production guide for Olives, olive trees begin to incur damage of small stems and leaves at 17°F and more severe damage at 12°F; tree death will occur if ground temperatures fall below 10°F. Older olive-trees with larger canopies are better equipped to survive a freeze event, making freeze damage a particular concern for young orchards.
In response to these challenges, AgroMoor Biotech has joined an academic-research partnership with Texas A&M (TAMU) AgriLife Research & Extension Center at Uvalde and the Texas Association of Olive Oil (TXAOO) to further characterize these environmental challenges and generate economically-feasible recommendations that orchard-owners can incorporate into their freeze-protection and CRR-resistance plans. Our organizations seek to leverage data to help Texan olive-growers become better environmental stewards who are better equipped to mitigate the risks associated with unwanted diseases and climatic conditions in their orchards.
The research and associated field-trials began December 1, 2018 and will continue through March 31, 2020. Texas A&M and TXAOO are utilizing funding provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Specialty Crop Block Grant (SCBG) to supervise the operations while AgroMoor is donating all volumes of LALITHA21 necessary to advance the research.
We are incorporating the product in this study to provide a quantification of the lab-observed benefits that our LALITHA21 product can have on boosting freeze-protection and CRR-resistance. Our product works to provide micro-organism support to the plant at a cellular level, which can help the plant better resist losses and recover quicker from any losses that do occur. Upon completion of the trials, the investigators seek to (1) quantify the impact that various agricultural practices, including the use of our LALITHA21 microbial soil-probiotic, have on boosting freeze protection and CRR resistance; (2) develop sustainable practices that minimize the impact of freezing and CRR disease in olive orchards, so as to minimize the impact on trees, olive yield, and oil quality; (3) create an online risk-assessment tool for producers; and (4) identify molecular and biochemical markers for freezing and CRR tolerance using regionally-adapted olive varieties and globally-sourced accessions.
The study is conducted in different orchards in South Texas, North-Central Texas, along the I-10 corridor, Southeast Texas, and East Texas. Each of the orchards provided us with information on their acreage, tree count, planting density, recent historical orchard-performance data, and their orchard’s approximate dates of inflorescence, fruit set, and harvest. This information is critical in establishing a baseline for the orchard’s current state, as well as determining a tailored field-trial methodology that simultaneously meets the needs of the overall study and the individual test-sites. Each test-site consists of a treated area and a control area to establish the baseline against which the treated areas will be compared. Prior to each treatment, the AgriLife team will collect leaf and soil samples from both the treated and the control areas, then apply the LALITHA21 to the treated areas. There will be three treatments per year at various stages of the plant’s life-cycle, namely, at inflorescence, fruit set, and following harvest. The product can be applied via injection, foliar spray, or simply sprayed onto the soil. The estimated value of LALITHA21 donated for each application at the participating orchards is approximately $12,000.
AgroMoor is an organization founded by scientists and engineers that pride themselves on data-driven recommendations for our customers. Microbial fertilizers have historically been a largely unscientifically-backed means of soil remediation leading to many unsubstantiated claims in the industry. Our team has seen first-hand (in university trials, lab trials, and field trials) the value that comes to farmers and producers that use our product and we continually encourage scientists and researchers alike to conduct their own evaluations of the merits. We are committed to continuing our long-standing tradition of running statistically significant field-trials that can accurately reflect the benefits introduced by LALITHA21 and validate the impact of our microbiological soil-probiotic as an effective, affordable, and holistic means of providing freeze protection and CRR resistance.
We will provide further updates on the results of the study as the trials progress; in the meantime, if you are interested in learning more about our technology or adopting our technology as part of your operations, please do not hesitate to contact us for a free consultation and to place your first order.