Four Voices
Nursery, organic production, and technical distribution, across a single production chain.
What you will find
Success Stories · Almería
T34 Biocontrol® Success Stories in Almería
Four professionals share their experience with T34 Biocontrol® across a single production chain.
From the nursery to the field and technical distribution, four voices explain how they integrate T34 Biocontrol® into disease management for Almería horticulture.
33.787 ha
Protected growing area mapped in the province in 2024
1
2,5 Mt
Exported in the 2024/2025 fruit and vegetable season
2
4.434 ha
Organic greenhouse area registered in 2025
3
29.519 ha
Horticultural area under biological control in 2024/2025
2
The concentration of greenhouses in Almería forms a territorial footprint recognizable even from satellite imagery. On that foundation, one of Europe’s largest concentrations of intensive, technified, and specialized horticulture has taken shape.
Origin · Production System · Biological Control
A Model Built From Scratch, Now a Benchmark in Biological Control
How Europe’s largest concentration of protected horticulture was built, and why the region has taken biological control further than almost anywhere else.
Almería’s horticultural system was built starting in the 1960s on semi-arid land with limited agronomic potential. It didn’t grow around large estates, but around small family-run holdings of just a few hectares, many still run today by the second or third generation. On that foundation, Europe’s largest concentration of protected horticulture has been built, supplying the European market throughout the winter window.
Along with it, the region has built its own management model. Almería is today the European region that has taken biological control furthest in protected horticulture: nearly nine out of every ten hectares of horticultural land are managed with beneficial organisms and biological solutions. What remains an alternative in other markets is already the standard practice here.
That level of adoption is no coincidence. It reflects a production system with very high technical and commercial demands, along with specific conditions — climate, crop cycles, and soil — that make preventive management a profitable decision rather than merely a precaution.
Agronomic Context
The real conditions of Almería greenhouses and the practices used to manage them today.
What It ExplainsEuropean Benchmark
Nearly 30,000 hectares of horticultural land managed with biological control — one of the highest adoption rates in Europe.
The Context
Climate · Cycles · Soil · Market
What Makes the System Possible
The conditions of Almería greenhouses and the practices the sector uses to manage them today. None of these are new — all are part of the region’s standard management approach.
What Makes the System Possible
Structural Advantage
Semi-Arid Mediterranean Climate
High solar radiation, mild winters, and very low rainfall make it possible to grow without heating throughout the entire European winter window. It’s the foundation the whole model rests on.
Competitive Advantage
Established Biological Management
Scheduled releases of beneficial organisms and biological solutions are the standard across most of the province’s horticultural area, not a minority practice.
High solar radiation, mild winters, and low rainfall make it possible to sustain horticultural production throughout the European winter window.
What It Demands in Return
Market Level
Commercial Demands
Major European retailers don’t just buy volume — they require uniform sizing, finish quality, traceability, weekly supply continuity, and residue profiles that, under many private protocols, are stricter than the legal limit.
Established Practice
Soil Rest Between Cycles
Soil solarization, biosolarization, and organic matter amendment between seasons, together with grafting onto rootstocks, are well-established practices for keeping the soil profile in good condition without relying on crop rotation.
Adapted Management
Soil Diversity and Water Quality
Sand-mulched soil (“enarenado”), natural soil, substrate, and hydroponics all coexist in the province, each with its own management approach. Where water conductivity is higher, irrigation and fertigation scheduling make it possible to work within those parameters.
Ongoing Adaptation
Extreme Weather Events
Torrential rain concentrated in just a few hours, out-of-season heat spikes, and sharp temperature swings are no longer the exception. The capacity to adapt — of the structure, the program, and the plant itself — now carries as much weight as potential yield.
Irrigation and fertigation scheduling makes it possible to adapt management to different cropping systems, substrates, and water quality conditions.
Nursery · Field · Technical Distribution
Four Ways of Working Under the Same Conditions
A nursery technician, two growers, and a technical distributor explain how they work and what they’ve observed since adding T34 Biocontrol® to their program.
The testimonials follow the order of the production chain. They start at the nursery, where the crop originates, and end with technical distribution, where insight from a large number of farms comes together. Each case represents a different crop, scale, and set of demands.
Each one offers a different perspective on the same production system: from the start of the plant’s life through field management and the supply of technical solutions to farms.
Case 01 · Semillero Los Crespos
A Full Year’s Season Begins in a Tray
Gisela Ogalla oversees germination and monitoring at a nursery that produces millions of seedlings a year.
Semillero Los Crespos produces millions of seedlings a year across more than ten hectares of facilities, in both organic and conventional production, and ships grafted plants outside Andalusia to La Mancha and Portugal. Gisela Ogalla oversees germination and monitoring across the whole facility, a stage that leaves no room for a second chance: what leaves here shapes the grower’s entire year.
“It’s very important that plants leave here healthy, because it’s the grower’s whole year riding on this season.” Gisela Ogalla · Semillero Los Crespos
T34 Biocontrol® is incorporated mixed into the peat from sowing onward, and also applied through the irrigation system. What Gisela highlights is how quickly it colonizes the substrate, how easy it is to dilute, and the effect she observes on the seedling: improved germination and a more developed root system, with greater volume and more root hairs.
Testimonial filmed at the Semillero Los Crespos facilities (Almería).
Case 02 · Roquetas de Mar
Bringing a Family Farm Back Through Organic Production
Néstor López grows a hectare and a half of organic peppers on soil with a history of monoculture.
Néstor López has spent eight years working the land and four running his own farm. The land came from his family, carrying a long history of solanaceous monoculture and the soil-borne fungal problems that management builds up, and it had always been treated with conventional products. He learned about T34 Biocontrol® at a technical event and, after talking with the team, adopted it starting with his first organic season.
“The crop is doing a lot better now, because I no longer have production losses. Before, I was losing between five and ten percent of the growing area.”
Néstor López · Roquetas de Mar
He applies it through the irrigation system, a couple of times per season, with no prior preparation or special equipment needed. Beyond the drop in losses, he describes a stronger start to the crop — “an extra push for the plant” — a longer season, and a much lower treatment frequency. He also values the distributor’s accessibility and the follow-up support after the sale.
Testimonial filmed at Néstor López’s farm (Roquetas de Mar, Almería).
Case 03 · Organic Cucumber
Twenty Years of Organic Production on the Same Soil
Sergio Arráez grows cucumbers on a family farm he’s worked since he was a child.
Sergio Arráez has grown just about everything — tomato, pepper, zucchini, even green beans — before specializing in cucumber, and he’s spent more than twenty years farming organically on the family holding. He started when there was hardly any authorized product for that kind of management: a technician suggested T34 Biocontrol®, he tried it on his farm, and it’s been the main product in his soil program ever since.
“It makes the plant grow more roots, protects the root, and displaces the soil microorganisms that attack the roots and the plant.”
Sergio Arráez · Organic Grower
He applies it through the irrigation system. On soil that’s been worked with the same crop for two decades, the condition the root starts each cycle in shapes the whole season, and that’s where he places the effect. After twenty years, he’s not looking to switch: “Why would I go looking for another product that’s supposedly cheaper, when I know this one works for me?”
Testimonial filmed at Sergio Arráez’s farm (Almería).
Case 04 · ALVI Nutrientes
Showing the Result Instead of Explaining It
Antonio Marruecos advises farms from Campo de Níjar to Adra and supports growers through on-farm product adoption.
ALVI Nutrientes was founded in 2005 and distributes agricultural inputs across much of the province. Antonio Marruecos, an agricultural engineer, is a technician at the family business and grew up around it. They committed to T34 Biocontrol® almost from the moment they were founded, and twenty years later they know in depth how, when, and on which crops to apply it.
“We run soil analyses a month or a month and a half after applying the product, and there are still substantial populations present.”
Antonio Marruecos · ALVI Nutrientes
Many growers are skeptical of biological products, so ALVI has chosen to show the result rather than explain it. After application, they take soil samples directly from the farm and confirm that the microorganism has established itself. Weeks later, the level is still high enough to maintain control — it’s a persistent product, and growers see it for themselves in their own fields.
Testimonial filmed at the ALVI Nutrientes facilities (Almería).
Sources
- 1
Mapped greenhouse area in the province of Almería, 2024. Junta de Andalucía (Regional Government of Andalusia).
- 2 Plataforma Tierra–Cajamar, Analysis of the Almería 2024/2025 Fruit and Vegetable Season, with foreign trade data.
- 3
Registered organic greenhouse area in 2025. Junta de Andalucía.
- 4
Horticultural area under biological control, 2024/2025 season. Junta de Andalucía.
Contact
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Biocontrol Technologies, S.L. · NIF B63545446
Av. Madrid, 217 — 08014 Barcelona
