AGPW delivers groundbreaking biopesticide field trial result against pink snow mold (Microdochium nivale)

The project began in the Fall of 2016 and focused on testing AGPW's LiveGrow™ platform grown and applied fungus, Trichoderma sp., against pink snow mold on a tee of a golf course in north central Washington State using the course’s standard spray equipment. This course has snow on it for three to four months every year and has always suffered pink snow mold damage that caused significant turf losses every year, especially in the tees and greens. Fall application of the LiveGrow™ fungus dramatically reduced the incidence of pink snow mold this spring. "There was only a very small area of pink mycelia on the treated turf, but the untreated areas were covered in pink mycelia," said the course superintendent when the snow melted at the end of March. Later, after the grass started growing, the course superintendent stated that the grass in the treated area grew back faster, was denser, and gave a better playing surface sooner. These differences were still visible two months later in mid-June.
 

Due to the success of this trial, AGPW is expanding its LiveGrow™ efforts into several additional field trial projects on golf courses. One such project already underway is focused on testing an especially selected strain of the gram-negative bacteria Xanthamonas campestris as a selective herbicide for control of Poa annua. This type of bacteria has been well known for about 30 years as an excellent solution to Poa control, but no one was able to formulate it for commercial application since gram negative bacteria do not produce any resting forms. LiveGrow™ has easily overcome this barrier and early limited results have been extremely encouraging with eradication of Poa recorded.
 

"The success of this field trial is a huge boost to our vision of delivering highly effective biopesticides to problems that have not historically had effective solutions, both chemical or biological. Our ability to grow, maintain, and apply microbial organisms in their live and active state clearly gives our LiveGrow™ platform an advantage over existing processes used for production and application of biological products. We are extremely excited to soon announce additional field trial results in other sectors currently in our pipeline and begin product development in the near future," said AGPW's President, Andrey Pinchuk.
 

AGPW began field trials in the Fall of 2016 and is currently evaluating the development of biopesticides through its LiveGrow™ platform for multiple diseases, sectors, and crops.