Challenging soils require diligent management and a long term view for gaining results. A recent article in Stock and Land from a farm walk with Geoff Rethus, where Geoff explains part of his soil management using cover crop and brown manure.
Also, Geoff comments on his use of Liquid P.
Biblio:
Stock and Land
Victorian No-Till Farmers Association
Clover
Brown Manure
Soil quality
cover crops
tram tracking
self mulching clays
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Monday, March 17, 2014
Soil Health / Soil Quality
Soil Quality ? . . .
. Soil Health?
Our view of soil management has certainly changed over the
last couple of decades. Rather than a
medium to be used, it is now has a broader integrated role in our management decisions,
whether the farm or the home garden. The more consideration and learning about
soils role and the value of its services, the more we as growers are exploring
the role we play in supporting our soils to provide a long term sustainable, productive
environment and economically value, providing food and recreation for people.
Often communicating the terms soil health and soil quality as
interchangeable, I see the definitions as distinctly different measures of the
condition and service of our soils. I see many soil tests, and work with
growers to manage that soil – specifically
for the crop being grown. Growing lucerne on the alkaline mallee sands of Lake
Boga compared with the acid clays of Ballarat, you get the picture that a
measure of healthy soil while both are, they will have different quality
measurement attributes in each environment which contribute to crop production.
It is our role as land managers to define both soil health and soil quality attributes
and manage soils accordingly.
I know I will require X amount of calcium and potassium to
produce X amount of lucerne crop with the feed value attributes buyers require.
This I refer to as a quality, as it has a distinct measure that I need to meet. Anything less, and I will not the meet quality measures. However, with soil health, I know in both regions, that earthworm numbers will be
very different, colour will be very different as will the likelihood and
distribution of layering in the soil. A healthy mallee sand will likely have a
few worms, compared with the Ballarat red soils of potentially dozens, but what do they
contribute to the crop.
In the next posts on Soil Health/ Soil Quality, we will discuss
the difference between Soil Health and Soil Quality and a range of measures and attributes we can use to measure improvement.
Monday, March 10, 2014
IPM - Wood Invading Fungi: Vineyard Management with Vinevax
Wood Invading Fungi: Vineyard Management with
Vinevax
Most viticulturists and vineyard managers are well aware of the problems caused by fungi or moulds such as the mildews and botrytis on the vine canopy but may be less familiar with diseases caused by wood invading fungi. At ground level the collar and root rots caused by Phytophthora and Armillaria may have been experienced, with the former more than likely confined to poorly drained areas in the vineyard, but there is another group of fungi which can cause vine decline in established vineyards.
Damage caused by injury from breakage or pruning, especially after major restructuring procedures in older vines, allows fungi such as Eutypa lata and Botryosphaeria stevensii to enter the woody tissues. It may be two or three seasons later before symptoms appear but usually the early symptoms of stunting, wilting and die back in the cane caused by these organisms progress into the main structure of the vine resulting in the condition known as dead or dying arm disease.
Although horticulture has at its disposal a wide range of chemical fungicides, very few, if any, have proven successful in eliminating fungal pathogens once they have become well established within the woody tissue of roots or vines. Many fungi have suppressive or antagonistic properties towards other fungi and harnessing this bio-activity can offer a solution for the problems of protection and control of this type of disease.
Scientists studying Trichoderma fungi, after the initial 1950’s discovery that it attacked and killed other fungi, have identified strains with activity against the wood-disease causing fungi Phytophthora, Armillaria, Eutypa and Botryosphaeria, as well as root disease pathogens Cylindrocarpon, Rhizoctonia, Pythium and Fusarium.
Vinevax, registered in Australia, harnesses bio-protective properties of Trichoderma into practical products to help the vineyard manager contain and control these economically damaging vine diseases. Vinevax pruning wound dressing can help maintain vine health during vine pruning when wounds are at high risk of pathogen invasion. Vinevax bio-dowel implants can be used to help control woody tissue disease in whole and re-constructed vines aiding faster return of vines to high health and productivity.
Bio-dowels being placed - Henschke vineyard manager Travis Coombe installing a Vinevax Bio-inoculate dowel into the base of a vine.
Most viticulturists and vineyard managers are well aware of the problems caused by fungi or moulds such as the mildews and botrytis on the vine canopy but may be less familiar with diseases caused by wood invading fungi. At ground level the collar and root rots caused by Phytophthora and Armillaria may have been experienced, with the former more than likely confined to poorly drained areas in the vineyard, but there is another group of fungi which can cause vine decline in established vineyards.
Damage caused by injury from breakage or pruning, especially after major restructuring procedures in older vines, allows fungi such as Eutypa lata and Botryosphaeria stevensii to enter the woody tissues. It may be two or three seasons later before symptoms appear but usually the early symptoms of stunting, wilting and die back in the cane caused by these organisms progress into the main structure of the vine resulting in the condition known as dead or dying arm disease.
Although horticulture has at its disposal a wide range of chemical fungicides, very few, if any, have proven successful in eliminating fungal pathogens once they have become well established within the woody tissue of roots or vines. Many fungi have suppressive or antagonistic properties towards other fungi and harnessing this bio-activity can offer a solution for the problems of protection and control of this type of disease.
Scientists studying Trichoderma fungi, after the initial 1950’s discovery that it attacked and killed other fungi, have identified strains with activity against the wood-disease causing fungi Phytophthora, Armillaria, Eutypa and Botryosphaeria, as well as root disease pathogens Cylindrocarpon, Rhizoctonia, Pythium and Fusarium.
Vinevax, registered in Australia, harnesses bio-protective properties of Trichoderma into practical products to help the vineyard manager contain and control these economically damaging vine diseases. Vinevax pruning wound dressing can help maintain vine health during vine pruning when wounds are at high risk of pathogen invasion. Vinevax bio-dowel implants can be used to help control woody tissue disease in whole and re-constructed vines aiding faster return of vines to high health and productivity.
Bio-dowels being placed - Henschke vineyard manager Travis Coombe installing a Vinevax Bio-inoculate dowel into the base of a vine.
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