AgBiotech, short for Agricultural Biotechnology, isn’t a term you often hear around horticulture and greenhouse businesses or even in CEA. But that’s changing quickly.
Field agriculture and row crops such as corn, wheat, rice and soybean are coming into the greenhouse, thanks to AgBiotech research. And we’re pleased that our Oasis Grower Solutions products, from substrates and fertilizers to wetting agents, are helping AgBiotech researchers build a more resilient future for us all.
Why AgBiotech Research Is Important
New plant varieties have always been important in commercial horticulture and agriculture. But recent years have added urgency to the work of traditional plant breeders — and AgBiotech researchers discovering and developing new plants.
With climate change, weather events are more extreme. Growers and farmers bounce from drought and water scarcity to torrential rains and flooding. Plant diseases and insect pests thrive where they couldn’t survive before. And urban sprawl eats up crop land. Meanwhile, global populations keep growing.
In response, AgBiotech researchers focus on increased crop yields and nutrient content; improved tolerances to pests, diseases and herbicides; resilience to extreme wind events; and plant-based vaccines and medicines to help feed and protect a growing world.
Our Director of Global Grower Operations and Research, Dr. Vijay Rapaka, studied agricultural science before going on to earn his Ph.D. in Ornamental Horticulture. “It has always been a dream of mine to further the development of row crops,” he shares. “To see our products being used as tools in such pioneering work is a dream come true.”
How AgBiotech Research Has Expanded
One researcher using OASIS® products explains that AgBiotech initially focused only on row crops that constitute the vast majority of the world’s food for human consumption and animal feed. Today, AgBiotech extends to vegetables, fruits and flowers, as well as industrial crops such as hemp.
Before joining our team last fall, our Plant Scientist, Erin Yafuso, Ph.D., conducted plant research using AgBiotech methods, including using CRISPR to switch-on oil genes in sugarcane, and research in strawberry and poinsettia propagation.
“With OASIS® growing media, I could manipulate the foam and consistently root plants in controlled environments,” Dr. Yafuso says. “This included rooting strawberry runner tips for nutrition studies in deep-water culture and rooting poinsettia for exploratory research using CT scanning to study root-zone water management.”
Through the years, the AgBiotech industry has incorporated more horticultural practices, regardless of the crop, to improve control during research and preserve the value of individual plants selected for further study and development, which can then be scaled up in production settings.
Regardless of the crop or scale, control is critical at each stage within AgBiotech research to allow for the discovery, phenotyping and development of new crops. Our Oasis Grower Solutions products are valuable tools at each stage in these AgBiotech processes.
How Our Products Aid AgBiotech Research
In addition to traditional breeding and selection techniques, AgBiotech researchers use many less conventional technologies as they seek to discover and develop new plants and crops.
Blending horticulture and agriculture with genetics and chemistry, these technologies include varied tissue culture methods, from simple micropropagation to complex techniques like embryo rescue and double haploid production, as well as marker-assisted selection (MAS), genetic engineering, gene editing and more.
Our Oasis Grower Solutions products help provide researchers with the control they need in the propagation and establishment of seedlings or cuttings, care of selected tissue culture plantlets during early characterization and sampling, water and fertility management, and the transition of plant material to production environments whether greenhouse or fields.
AgBiotech researchers tell us our products provide the following benefits and more:
+ OASIS® engineered foam substrates can be sanitized or sterilized chemically or physically without breaking down or altering their physical structure.
+ Predibbled holes in our sterilized media permit the damage-free transfer of fragile tissue culture plantlets into a substrate environment.
+ Our foam substrates’ open cell design permits easy root development, even for fragile young plantlets and seedlings.
+ Experimental treatments can be added to and easily replaced by washing or vacuum suction from the cellular foam substrate, allowing for greater control in treatment environments.
+ OASIS® foam substrates give researchers flexibility to apply more treatments while minimizing plant stress, preserving the plant’s inherent value early in development pipelines.
+ Convenient OASIS® fertilizers offer a complete nutrient blend to meet the need of transplants, whether in hydroponic conditions or foam-based media into peat.
+ OASIS® SOAX® Wetting Agents help manage and revitalize substrates to improve full rooting access throughout the production container.
As the vital work of AgBiotech researchers continues to expand and advance, we’re grateful that our Oasis Grower Solutions products play significant roles.
From AgBiotech research to greenhouse and nursery production to CEA cultivation, we exist to solve your problems with innovative solutions and integrity. Reach out to us at +1 (855) 585-4769 or [email protected].
We’re Oasis Grower Solutions. Let us help you meet the future and excel.