Israel continues to lead the world in farming advancements. The latest development enables plants to be resistant to soil-borne diseases and to survive in hot climates.
Hishtil Nurseries, a company based in Moshav Nehalim near Petah Tikva, uses grafting to create vegetable seedlings whose roots are particularly water conservative and are fitting for hot environments such as those in Israel. The agriculturalists at Moshav Nehalim then decided to take the grafting one-step further, and cultivate seedlings that can survive extreme temperatures in addition to diseases. Countries throughout the world have expressed interest in learning this technique from the Israeli company.
The Jerusalem Post quotes Menni Shamdi, the marketing director at Hishtil, who explained the grafting became popular after bans on methyl bromide were put in place throughout the world. This gave farmers “no choices for soil fumigation” which “took a heavy toll from the yield of the vegetables” because of soil-borne diseases. “Growers are forces to combat new diseases every day. As such, based on this development, the importance and the usage of grafted plants especially in fruity vegetables is very popular.”We took the knowledge of grafting and have developed it and adopted it to grow in our area – with high humidity, high sun radiation, high temperature.
Plants are getting weaker and weaker under climatic pressure while the bad guys, the diseases, are enhanced and grow based on these conditions that are favorable to them.”
Hishtil began using this process 15 years ago and the international has expressed interest in recent years. Hishtil has brought its seedlings to five nurseries throughout Israel and additional nurseries in South Africa, Turkey, Italy and Bosnia. Other potential markets include African nations, the United States southern Sunbelt, Mexico, South America, southern parts of Europe and the Far East.
Reported by DOV LIPMAN for United with Israel.
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