The two already on sale are Bio-Save 100, which is registered for control of blue mold (Penicillium expansum), gray mold (Botrytis cinerea) and mucor rot (Mucor piriformis ) on apples, and Bio-Save 110, which is registered on pears.
Lucie Grant, director of technical operations with EcoScience at Orlando, Florida, said limited quantities of those products were available last year, but they have since been reformulated. They are now available as frozen pellets, which are cheaper and easier to use than the old clay mixture.
"They are now reformulated into a low-cost product, something that can compete in the marketplace," Grant said.
The active ingredient in Bio-Save 100 is a strain of the beneficial bacterium Pseudomonas syringae discovered by a scientist at EcoScience. Bio-Save 110 is based on another strain of Pseudomonas syringae patented by Dr. Wojciech Janisiewicz with the USDA at Kearneysville, West Virginia.
The biocontrols are expected to be used in combination with low rates of TBZ (thiabendazole), other than on organic fruit, Grant said.
EcoScience is continuing to develop Roberts' biocontrol, which is known at this stage as ESC-15 and is based on the yeast Cryptococcus laurentii. Grant said it could possibly turn out to be more effective than the Bio-Save 100, which was discovered and patented a couple of years earlier.
EcoScience acquired the worldwide rights to develop C. laurentii as a biocontrol in 1994. The company has been cooperating with Roberts since 1992 and is developing methods to mass produce the yeast so it can be mixed with water and applied to fruit with conventional equipment by drenching, dipping, or spraying. Formulations will be tested in the Yakima and Wenatchee areas of Washington State this fall.
Once the company decides which is the most effective formulation, it will begin toxicology studies for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency registration. Grant said it can take a year to obtain a registration, and the company hopes to begin to sell the product commercially in the fall of 1998.
Copyright © 1996, Good Fruit Grower
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