Plant strengthening agents

Plant strengthening agents are substances and mixtures, including microorganisms, intended solely for the general purpose of keeping plants healthy, unless they are plant protection products as defined in Article 2(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 or intended to protect plants from non-parasitic harm. The placing on the market of plant strengthening agents is established in § 45 of Plant Protection Act. Plant strengthening agents  are (provisionally) marketable as soon as they have been registered at BVL and have been assigned a listing number. The listing number or registration in the list of plant strengthening agents are proof of the marketability of the products. Admission in the BVL's list of plant strengtheners only results after final inspection by BVL. A monthly updated list of plant strengthening agents can be found on BVL website. Supplementary, BVL keeps a list of plant strengtheners that are no longer marketable. Only marketable products are mentioned in the Input list.

Evidence of effectiveness is not legally required. Although this simplifies the listing process for the applicant, it means that effectiveness cannot be verified by the authorities.

In the Input list, plant strengtheners are listed regardless of their proven effectiveness, which, besides, represents no criteria for evalution regarding principles of orgranic agriculture. A wide presentation of examination results regarding use of plant strengthening agents can be found at  www.bvl.bund.de. EU Commission minds that plant strengtheners available in Germany are not subject to the requirement to be included in the positive lists of Regulation (EU) 2021/1165 or Regulation (EC) No. 889/2008. Accordingly, plant strengthening agents that are not mentioned for this purpose in the regulation, can therefore be used in organic agriculture.