Education, funding, and above all, communication throughout the chain, will help deliver new and better biological tools for growers. By Brian Sparks | Senior Editor, Greenhouse Grower
As the biologicals market continues to evolve, researchers at both the public and private levels are working to make sure they are addressing the long-term needs of the end-user: the grower. We reached out to a team of researchers representing universities and suppliers to get their thoughts on the current and future state of biologicals.
Brian Sparks, Greenhouse Grower: What are each of you hearing from the growers you work with regarding some of the biggest current needs and concerns when it comes to the biologicals category?
Michelle Jones, The Ohio State University: Growers still don't really understand what a biostimulant is and how it compares to a biopesticide or a biofertilizer and, so I think education is still really important. Their biggest concern is that labels on biostimulants are very general, and they make a lot of big claims, but they're not sure they believe them. Most growers would like to see more information and research-based results for the specific crops they’re producing, including rate application methods, plant response, and how the greenhouse environment and conditions play a role in how well the material works. The potential is great, but we have to get a lot more information to the grower.
Rose Buitenhuis, Vineland Research and Innovation Centre: I would say growers want to use more biological materials instead of the traditional chemical fungicides and bactericides, but they don't know exactly what to use and when to use it. The use of biologicals is more of a preventative strategy. Here in Canada, our use of biological controls for pest control is very high compared to other areas, so our focus may be a little bit different. We're really looking to fill in the strategic gaps and make the programs work better at a lower cost.
Emily Fuerst, Kemin Crop Technologies: Education is probably the number-one thing that many growers need because these products are so incredibly diverse. The microbiological and biostimulant categories alone have multiple subcategories, all with different activities and modes of action. Knowing how they should be applied and the expected results you should get, even down to the plant species, will be very different. Our company makes sure we explicitly understand the mode of action at the chemical level, so we can give an explanation for what's happening, potential interaction, and what a grower should see. There's not going to be a single product that's going to solve all problems, and any number of factors in a greenhouse or operation can throw things off balance, so you have to be able to make adjustments. Having a strong program in place can help you minimize that risk.
Sarah Jandricic, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA): In Canada, the single biggest barrier to floriculture growers eliminating pesticides completely in their IPM programs is aphid control. According to anecdotal reports by growers, parasitic wasps, like Aphidius colemani don’t seem to work as well as they used to. This could be due to a lot of factors: rearing conditions, drifting genetics of commercially produced populations, the presence of “cryptic” or hidden species of Aphidius within the products sold as one species or another, issues with storage and release, or none of the above.
Research solutions are needed to improve the efficiency of aphid biocontrol agents and demonstrate their effectiveness to growers in the real world. Research on different banker plants to support more kinds of aphid predators and parasitoids is something growers would be interested in. For example, there is some interesting work being done on banker plants with pea aphids to support parasitoids that like larger-bodied aphids, like A. ervi.
Sparks: What areas of biologicals research need more focus, and what does the next wave of research look like?
Jones: The use of biological control for insect management and disease is way ahead of the use of biostimulants for a number of reasons, starting with the regulatory process. With biostimulants, it's really going to depend on how the U.S. starts to regulate them. As researchers, we just need to continue trying to figure out how these different biostimulant categories work. In many cases, the true mode of action is not really known. Understanding the mode of action will help us know which plants certain materials should work on, the conditions in which they should work, the expected response, etc. The more information we have, the more we can help growers. We’re trying to focus on getting biostimulant research up to where it needs to be.
One of the things with some of the biostimulant products that I think growers don't understand, and it's part of this research, is if you're looking at mycorrhizae and some of these bioactive microbes, it takes time for those responses to be seen. But in a bedding plant cycle that might only be eight to 10 weeks or less, the grower may not see a response. This is going to be something that their consumers will get the benefit from. And so, depending on what that market is and where those plants end up, that may or may not be an investment that they're interested in. That's why we're trying to figure out a little bit better how these materials are working.
Buitenhuis: We’re getting a lot more requests from companies to trial their products. As we do so, we're also getting deeper into biochemistry so we can really see what's actually happening in the plant when you apply a product. This is very enlightening because before, when we did trials, we would put something in the system and then see what happens at the end, but everything that happened in between was unknown. Because there's so much variability in the results, it's really necessary to know what actually happens in between.
The other thing needed is more information on new crops. Strawberries under glass is taking off, and there are so many research needs in cannabis. With these crops comes new pests, and you can’t just transplant a biocontrol program from ornamentals into cannabis or from ornamentals into strawberries. So, developing new IPM systems for new crops is one big area of concern.
We're also looking at how certain biopesticides affect biocontrol agents: Do the predators eat each other, or if you have a biocontrol for one pest, how will it affect the biocontrol of another pest? A greenhouse is one big ecosystem, and you have to make it work for you.
Another underlying issue is plant breeding, which means more resilient crops that work better with biostimulants. We did some research years ago and found out that the tomato variety we were using was actually not reacting to any of the biostimulants that we were trying. When we switched to a different variety, we suddenly had results. So even within the same plant species, the reactions are not the same.
Fuerst: It usually comes down to having close conversations with growers to understand their challenges and needs, so we can identify where the market needs to be going and set up our growers for success. Cannabis and hemp have been a huge growth area, and there's been a lot of demand in that sector. A number of solutions are available, but they need to be translated over and approved. In the larger picture, growers often have the same consistent needs. One that came up recently is drought tolerance due to the high heat the West Coast and parts of North America are experiencing. They can only control so many factors, so we're trying to help them mitigate risk, whether it’s insects, microbial pathogens, or fertilizer.
Jandricic: There are a lot of changes happening in production right now to improve plant quality and growth: LED lights, dehumidification, growing under dynamic temperature regimes, soil amendments, etc. Add on top of this the diversification into new crops (e.g., berries, cannabis) in controlled environments that have different environmental needs than we’re used to. We need to start assessing what the impacts of these changes are on biocontrol, negative or positive, and start making changes, instead of trying to shoehorn our current biocontrol tactics into new spaces.
Sparks: Are there ways that public and private segments of the industry can work together to address some of these needs?
Fuerst: We have to work together. Ultimately, companies are there to make a profit and universities are there to ensure growers are successful. Resources are limited in all circumstances, and while collaborating together to develop new products can be a challenge, as long as we all have the same goal to understand how these products work and create solutions, we can come together to make it work. We can coordinate and collaborate with Extension to help us expand that information on all crops and varieties and deliver it to the grower.
Jones: Research really needs to be a partnership between universities and other parts of the industry, including growers, so we can know what questions they have and what kind of results they want from the different products that are out there. Funding is definitely a challenge. We have a lot of grants that require matching industry funding, and we also have the Specialty Crops Research Initiative.
It can be a balancing act to evaluate and work with companies on looking at the products that are out there and understanding how they work and what kind of recommendations can be made to growers.
The other approach that we've taken on the microbial side is looking at identifying new potential beneficial bacteria from different species that are traditionally in these products and learning more about them.
Jandricic: It’s really all about communication of grower needs to researchers and industry specialists, and continued communication throughout the research process to trouble-shoot problems and sort out logistical issues early. Ontario has a great model of growers working with provincial, federal, university, and private researchers, all from project inception to technology transfer to a wider audience at the end. We need more of this, and to work more closely with technology specialists in the fields of lighting and environmental control, as well as natural enemy production.
