During winter, the flower buds of fruit trees, such as cherry trees, stop their growth and enter a metabolic state of dormancy from which they do not wake up until spring, after a determined number of hours of cold temperatures.

When trees do not get the requisite hours of cold temperatures, it is easy for some flowers to fall prematurely or for fruits to sprout irregularly.

In 2010, the European Union banned the substance that was commonly used to break this dormancy, which brought about the demand for an alternative product.

Biovert, a company specialized in plant nutrition, fertilizers, and biostimulants, asked the research group ‘ANTIOX,’ from the Faculty of Biology of the University of Barcelona, for advice in order to collaborate on the development of a new product that causes flower buds to break dormancy in a uniform way. The goal is to yield a crop as uniform and productive as possible by having all flowers break dormancy homogeneously.

The research group Antiox, led by Dr. Sergi Munné, contributes its knowledge and technical laboratory work to test the effectiveness of models, both in the laboratory and on the field, while Biovert is in charge of the development and formulation of the new product.