ProGibb® Leads the Way in Maximizing Crop Production

Crops
Ideal for application on a variety of crops: table grapes, citrus, temperate fruit crops, tropical crops, and vegetable crops.

Benefits
Offered in several formulations ranging from soluble granules to low-volatility liquids, ProGibb® is applied to a wide variety of crops with more than 55 uses. Globally, ProGibb and Berelex®:

  • Improve cluster stretching, cluster thinning, and berry sizing on table grapes
  • Increase fruit set, reduce fruit drop, and delay rind creasing in citrus

Active Ingredients
ProGibb contains the plant growth regulator (PGR) gibberellic acid (GA3), which increases plant growth, fruit set, and fruit size, and stimulates seed germination.

How ProGibb Changed the Game
In the mid-1950s, research began to emerge surrounding gibberellins, a class of naturally occurring plant hormones that were the forerunners of many of today’s plant growth regulator products. Of particular interest was gibberellic acid (GA3), a plant hormone that controls cell division and growth and is present in a variety of crops. At the time, no one realized that GA3 would fundamentally and forever change commercial fruit production in major growing areas around the world.

Before GA3, table grape varieties boasted large berries, but they also produced seeds that were bothersome and often bitter tasting. Seedless table grapes became the objective of many breeding programs, but in grapes, GA3 is produced by the seed. As a result, all seedless varieties produced small berries due to lack of natural GA3 production.

The proactive application of GA3 was revolutionary for this unmet need. GA3 was first proactively applied on the main variety in raisin production, Thomson Seedless, which has small, seedless berries that are ideal for raisins. With foliar applications of GA3, Thomson Seedless was transformed from a small berry-producing variety to the leading table grape variety in the world. Today, the use of GA3 in seedless table grape production is standard practice for table grape production.

Perfecting the Science
Despite its enormous impact on seedless grapes, the cost of manufacturing the product was prohibitive. At the time, GA3 was not easy to produce and was expensive for growers. Although a beneficial return on investment was demonstrable even with the earliest GA3 products, the adoption curve lagged. It was at that point that the Agricultural Products Division of Abbott Laboratories (now known as Valent BioSciences) assumed its leadership position and changed the game not only in GA3 production, but for PGRs as a whole.

After a decade of tireless research, testing, and refinements, Valent BioSciences was successful in dramatically reducing the cost of GA3 through expert fermentation techniques and strain selection. This meant that for the first time, GA3 was readily accessible to growers via ProGibb, also known as Berelex in some regions. The consequent lower cost resulted not only in widespread commercial adoption of GA3, but also in sparking exciting new research into potential uses of ProGibb on other crops.

Citrus and Other Crops
As the seedless table grape industry took off, the use of ProGibb on citrus became the next focal point for agricultural researchers. Research into the effects of GA3 on citrus began to show dramatic results. It was found that applying ProGibb to citrus at color break kept the rind in a juvenile state. While the fruit continued to grow and mature on the inside, the effect on the rind kept it from ripening, giving growers the ability to delay harvest for two to three months in ProGibb-treated blocks while untreated fruit could be harvested normally. The advantages of this change were revolutionary to the citrus industry.

Rather than a typical two-to-three-month harvest window, citrus growers could now extend their harvest to last five or six months. On a grand scale, this meant that a year-round supply of high-quality, affordable oranges was suddenly available to meet global consumer demand. In addition, while a typical citrus grower might have needed to employ several hundred seasonal workers to harvest the crop at peak quality in the past, it was now possible to hire fewer workers for a longer period by applying ProGibb.

Today, as in table grape production, the use of GA3 is the standard in every citrus-producing country in the world. Since the introduction of ProGibb, Valent BioSciences has added more than 55 uses to the label, making this plant growth regulator exceptional in its ability to be used across a multitude of crops. Despite the market entry of other GA3 products, ProGibb’s many high-quality formulations enable it to realize growing sales around the world year after year and remain the world’s top-selling GA3 brand.

Share: