Bee Vectoring Technologies (BVT) Pt 1
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. A Canadian company is causing quite the “buzz” with its natural approach to protecting crops from pests and the diseases they carry.
Ian Collinson, with Bee Vectoring Technologies, says they’re using a very effective biopesticide to help your crops fight off any unwanted problems …
COLLINSON … “So, the active ingredient is called Clonostachys Rosea (CR-7). It’s just a Pioneer colonizer. It’s found all around the world, but we have a unique strain specifically to inoculate plants to protect from fungal pathogens infecting those crops.”
And their distribution method, Collinson says is kind of a “since you’re already headed that way” approach …
COLLINSON … “We’re using bees, both honey bees and bumble bees actually. On their way out of the hive, they’ll pick up trace amounts of our product and as they pollinate, they’ll drop off spores from our product into that plant which then live and are systemic within inside that plant tissue.”
But, is it more effective than other distribution methods? …
COLLINSON … “I would argue even more so protective, because with spraying you’re typically trying to hit a bloom, right. That’s a main portal of entry for disease, where bees are going directly to that bloom. So, I mean really, depending upon your disease profile, but a bee you have, you know, targeted delivery as we call it. So, they’re picking up our product going straight to where it needs to be with very little waste along the way.”
Tune in tomorrow for more on BVT and how the bees make themselves important allies in protecting your crops.
