Winter cold in a test tube

Dormex^®, developed by Degussa’s Agrochemicals & Intermediates Business Line, provides the essential winter rest for grapevines, fruit trees and berry bushes in mild climates.

Well-informed wine enthusiasts know practically everything there is to know about types of grapes, good vineyards and superior vintages – but only very few are aware that their enjoyment of a fine wine may also be the result of a Degussa product. Its name: Dormex®. Its function: a growth regulator for fruit and vine cultivation. Dormex® helps grapevines, fruit trees and berry bushes to get enough winter sleep during the cold months of the year – for only if this rest period (dormancy) is long enough, will the plants be able to sprout optimally in the following growth phase. If the cold winter weather period is too short, the sprouting will be uneven and incomplete. A poor harvest is often the consequence.

This is where Dormex^® comes into play: the active agent – developed and produced in Degussa’s Trostberg-based laboratories – can replace the missing cold and stimulate the sleeping buds of vines or fruit trees to sprout. “The plant receives a signal that winter is over. It makes no difference whether this impulse came from natural cold or from Dormex^®,” explains Winfried Gettmann, Manager of the Agriculture Product Line at Degussa.

Over the last few years, Dormex® has gained enormously in importance for wine and fruit cultivation worldwide. Dr. Hubertus Gehrmann, Product Manager in the Agrochemicals & Intermediates Business Line in Trostberg, sees one reason for this in the growing consumer demand for exotic wine varieties or fruits at particular times of the year – such as fresh raspberries at Christmas. Many plants that were originally grown in cooler climates are consequently now also cultivated in regions with mild winters, such as the Mediterranean region. Dormex® makes sure that plants receive their essential winter sleep despite an insufficient cold period.

In use in over 30 countries
Dormex^® has now been approved for use in over 30 countries. Furthermore, the Degussa team working with Hubertus Gehrmann and Winfried Gettmann is working continually to further development the product. The agricultural scientists are setting their sights, for example, on sugar cane applications, but also for yellow kiwis from New Zealand – the possibilities are many and diverse. Particularly since Dormex^® leaves no residue in the plant: “These products are guaranteed to be free of residue,” assure Gehrmann and Gettmann, “so the enjoyment of the wine is completely unadulterated.”