Most vegetable growers typically only squeeze out marginal productivity gains each year, if at all, through improved varieties, agronomic practices, and the latest crop protection technology.
Given this fact, Sumitomo Chemical Australia business development manager Jock Leys says the next major step in productivity gains is likely to come from understanding and ensuring biologicals are working for you.
He says perhaps the most important biological in ensuring crops reach their potential is mycorrhizae. Mycorrhizae is a type of beneficial fungi that helps a plant to access essential nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen.
“Mycorrhizae colonises the plant’s root system and increases its surface area to boost the plant’s ability to uptake nutrient and moisture and is a critical component in healthy biologically active soils.
“Some vegetable crops are highly dependent on mycorrhizae to grow productively. Where you don’t have an adequate mycorrhizae colonisation, you could be losing anywhere from 20–50 per cent of the crop’s productivity.”
Mr Leys said potatoes and onions are two vegetable crops that have responded well to mycorrhizae inoculants. This has been demonstrated many times in trials and now in commercial crops where Sumitomo’s EndoPrime mycorrhizae inoculant has been applied.
“Many growers are using EndoPrime where they have previously grown a brassica fumigant crop, brassicas are known to fumigate mycorrhizae and deplete it from the soil, so the fact that growers are now re-introducing mycorrhizae into their paddocks quickly – as opposed to re-building it very slowly over time is a positive.
“It’s getting the soil and crops back up to full productivity much quicker,” Mr Leys said.
Significant yield and quality increases have been recorded in potato trials over the past two years, with fresh market potatoes in Tasmania producing 6.7% higher yields vs un-inoculated, while a Kipfler trial in Victoria showed an 11% yield increase and a 30% reduction in smalls.”
Mr Leys said similar responses have been in onions seen where a recent trial in Forth in Tasmania showed a yield increase of 7.5% over non-inoculated crops.
For growers who are considering using biological crop products, Mr Leys says it is important to do your research before choosing a product to address a specific issue.
“It is critical to know the situation you’re dealing with so you can choose the right product. Test your soil to understand the current mycorrhizae level and consider the impact of the surrounding environment, crop rotations and different farming and cultural practices.
“Cultivation, fumigation and growing brassicas are the most significant factors to deplete mycorrhizae, so it’s critical to know your situation to understand when a product like EndoPrime will provide the most help.”
Quality control was also critical to ensure you are building only the desired organisms within the soil rather than pathogenic fungi or diseases, which can sometimes be present as contaminants in poorer quality mycorrhizae products.
“It’s important to make sure products come from a reputable company with good QA standards,” he said.
