Bloom-delay spray to protect fruit crops from late frost
This technology uses a chemical compound called DIECA to delay when peach and other deciduous fruit trees bloom in the spring. By applying this jasmonate inhibitor to trees before bloom, growers can push flowering back by days or weeks, reducing the chance that open blossoms are killed by late spring frosts. The approach works by blocking a plant hormone pathway that triggers flowering, giving growers a low-cost, spray-applied tool to manage bloom timing. This addresses a persistent and economically damaging problem in temperate fruit production where late frosts can wipe out an entire year's crop.
What you could build
A crop protection spray product containing DIECA formulated for commercial orchard application, sold to peach, cherry, and apple growers in frost-prone regions of the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and Midwest as a seasonal frost-risk management tool.
Who in Virginia should care
Virginia has a significant commercial peach and apple orchard industry in the Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge regions, where late spring frosts are a recurring production risk — growers, ag extension services, and crop input distributors here would be direct end users.
Readiness: Lab validated
Concept — described but not yet demonstrated. Lab validated — supported by experimental results in the patent. Prototype likely — the text describes a built, working embodiment.
Readiness is inferred from the patent text, not from a lab visit.
The record
- Inventors
- Sherif M. Sherif, Jianyang LIU, Md Tabibul ISLAM
- Filed
- Patent pending — filed March 21, 2025
- Status
- Application
- Publication number
- US20260101901A1
Ready to talk?
Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties handles licensing for this technology.
Prosim summaries are generated from public patent text and are not legal advice.