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
Aerial view of the concentration of greenhouses in Almería
Protected Horticulture · Almería

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.

Four Voices

Nursery, organic production, and technical distribution, across a single production chain.

What you will find

Agronomic Context

The real conditions of Almería greenhouses and the practices used to manage them today.

What It Explains
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.
La estructura se replanta en cuanto se levanta el cultivo anterior. La superficie cultivada a lo largo de una campaña llega casi a duplicar la superficie física de invernadero.
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.
Semi-arid Mediterranean landscape in Almería
Mediterranean Climate · Almería

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 technical management system in a greenhouse
Irrigation · Fertigation · Protected Crops

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.

Pepper seedlings in a nursery tray

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.

SweetBite mini pepper

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?”

Cucumber plant

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.

ALVI Nutrientes Logo

Testimonial filmed at the ALVI Nutrientes facilities (Almería).

 
Sources
  1. 1

    Mapped greenhouse area in the province of Almería, 2024. Junta de Andalucía (Regional Government of Andalusia).

  2. 2 Plataforma Tierra–Cajamar, Analysis of the Almería 2024/2025 Fruit and Vegetable Season, with foreign trade data.

  3. 3

    Registered organic greenhouse area in 2025. Junta de Andalucía.

  4. 4

    Horticultural area under biological control, 2024/2025 season. Junta de Andalucía.

Contact

Need More Information?

Leave us your details and our technical team at Biocontrol Technologies will get in touch with you.

Plantillas > Pie de página).

── CONDICIÓN DE VISUALIZACIÓN ──
Hoy la plantilla solo se muestra en las dos landings de dosier.
Debe estar en TODO EL SITIO: en Elementor > Plantillas > Pie de
página > Condiciones de visualización, poner «Todo el sitio».
Ahora mismo falta en las tres páginas legales, en Almería y en
la landing inglesa /en/t34-biocontrol-2026/, que sigue con el
pie del tema (Vela) y por tanto sin ningún enlace legal.

── QUÉ SE ARREGLA EN LA v4 ──
La v3 solo llamaba a cmplz_set_banner_status(‘show’). En páginas
donde Complianz no había inicializado el banner (Do Not Track /
Global Privacy Control activados en el navegador) eso oscurecía
la pantalla sin abrir nada. Ver el comentario del script.

── QUÉ SE ARREGLÓ EN LA v3 ──
El enlace de preferencias no funcionaba. La v2 daba por hecho
que Complianz abre el panel con cualquier elemento que lleve la
clase cmplz-show-banner. Es falso: esa clase no aparece ni una
vez en complianz.min.js, así que el no tenía nada
escuchando detrás.

Complianz solo registra un listener, y exige