GreenRelease for Plant Health

The main objective of the GreenRelease project is to make the GreenRelease technology platform (Fig. 1) a robust and applicable technology for applications in plant health and sustainable agriculture. The project is divided in three areas to achieve the main objective: 1. Technology advancement & upscaling, 2. Validation for four application areas, 3. Economic assessment by mapping of the knowledge base, technology transfer, and evaluation of market entry options with regard to the application areas by analyzing and developing (novel) value chains for innovations. Main advantages of the GreenRelease technology over existing release technologies are the controlled release of compounds/peptides over weeks/months, minimized loses due to a high rain fastness, plant compatibility, and tuneable biodegradability. The unique technical application characteristics of the GreenRelease technology platform are based on microgel containers (200 nm to 10 µm) that can as soft particles be loaded with essentially all kinds of compounds and that are attached through anchor peptides on plants (e.g. plant leaves or fruits) at ambient temperature and by simple spraying. Nevertheless, a robust GreenRelease technology has additionally to match application demands in storage (e.g. stored in dried form), in regulations (e.g. biodegradability & time point of application), and in applications on plant surfaces (e.g. release kinetics/duration, compatibility with established application technologies). Four application areas have been selected: post-harvest loss (e.g. tomatoes), chemical weed management (selective herbicides affecting C4 photosynthesis), sustainable organic and integrated pest management in horticulture, and defense priming for pest management (two out of grapevine, tomato, potato, corn, and/or soybean).