Greenhouse and Field efficacy trials
Mist tunnels
One of the more hands-on projects I've been part of involved setting up and running mist tunnel propagation trials with batches of up to 1,000 semi-hardwood olive cuttings at a time — across 4 cultivars, 4 growing substrates, and 2 rooting treatments. One of those treatments was conventional IBA; the other was Azospirillum baldaniorum Sp245, a plant growth-promoting bacterium. The question was simple but not trivial: can a microorganism do what a synthetic hormone does, even in cultivars that are notoriously difficult to root?The answer, it turned out, was yes. Microbial treatment proved effective across cultivars, including the hard-to-root ones — which is where these things usually fall apart. Along the way, I also developed a histological protocol that could predict rooting success within 20 days of application, well before the cutting actually roots. In a propagation setting, that kind of early readout matters: it saves time, material and space.
Greenhouse Trials
During my PhD and industrial collaboration with Corteva Agriscience, I carried out 5+ greenhouse trials evaluating microbial biostimulants on two tomato varieties and four olive cultivars. I managed all phases hands-on, tracking up to 10 agronomic parameters per trial and consistently achieving 15–30% increases in root number and shoot biomass relative to untreated controls.
phytotron
Another experiment I particularly enjoyed was a 21-day controlled growth-chamber study: the kind where everything is tightly managed and the question is very precise.I inoculated wheat crop residues with Trichoderma gamsii T6085 and put it up against both single Fusarium species and complex multi-pathogen mixtures, then tracked how colonisation dynamics played out under that pressure.What makes this type of experiment interesting is the ecological realism of it: in the field, a biocontrol agent never faces a single pathogen in isolation. It has to compete, establish and persist in a messy, multi-species environment.Watching T6085 hold its ground — and in some cases outcompete — under those conditions was one of the more satisfying results of my MSc work.
Field Trials
My field experience spans two open-field sites in Italy, where I coordinated multi-season efficacy trials of a novel microbial biostimulant on four olive cultivars, monitoring 50+ trees per season across two application regimes with a multidisciplinary team of 5–8 people. All trials were delivered 100% on time and in full compliance with experimental protocols
Project management
Across my PhD and industrial collaboration with Corteva Agriscience (Cremona, Italy), I designed and executed 10+ end-to-end GEP and GLP compliant experimental programmes spanning laboratory, greenhouse and field settings, managing activity prioritisation, team coordination and resource allocation to meet both timelines and budget constraints. I coordinated 3 concurrent trial activities across 3 sites, working with multidisciplinary teams of 5–8 people including growers, nursery technicians and R&D scientists. I also supervised two trainees through their final-year projects at BSc and MSc level. Throughout all activities, I maintained rigorous logbook and field reporting standards, ensuring full data traceability and trial consistency — 100% of trials were delivered on time and in compliance with experimental protocols, for both internal teams and industrial partners
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