We have also written a series of learning courses on our new website. You’ll have to sign up (for free) to access them because a login is needed to keep track of your progress. And there are some self-test questions to help reinforce the messages if you’d like to check your understanding.

Course 1 Nutrient management for vegetable crops covers nutrient management principles, taking representative samples, and nitrogen as a special case.

Course 2 is “How to run an on-farm fertiliser rate trial”. It is based on the “On-Farm Trial Guide” and covers the 10 point plan for running a successful trial.

Our next section is focused on fertiliser equipment calibration. We’ve already got some video in the can thanks to Extremekid Productions.

The post Vegetable Production Nitrogen Management appeared first on LandWISE Staging.

We are delighted to have Alex on board, with her strong background in nutrient management and a focus on sustainable production systems.

The local farms are part of the second year of our “Best Management Practice of Nitrates in Process Cropping” project funded by MPI through the Sustainable Farming Fund, with co-funding and support from Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, Kraft-Heinz Watties and McCain Foods. As with everyone else, the wet spring has delayed many plantings, but we have six trials established, with two more green bean crops to be planted in January.

We began an extension to our “Future Proofing Vegetable Production” project in July. That is making a series of online learning resources, based on the lessons from the Future Proofing Vegetable Production work in Gisborne and Horowhenua. Alex stars in two new videos, which can be viewed on our new-look website.

Alex is also managing a new trial that will be announced shortly. A lot of preliminary work behind the scenes and a huge amount of baseline sampling in the field has kept everyone very busy for the last few months.

The post Welcome Alex appeared first on LandWISE Staging.

Together with the New Zealand Asparagus Council, we were fortunate to obtain funding from “Our Land and Water” to investigate nitrate best practice management.

We surveyed a number of growers about fertiliser and nitrate management practices. We find growers generally have good management for transport, handling and storage. We see a wide range of practices for nitrate management including rates and timing, and this is what we are trying to understand.

We have established five trials, two in Hawke’s Bay and one each in Mangaweka, Manawatu and Mid-Canterbury. We are monitoring nitrate levels in soil, roots and fern, to build a picture of how the amounts move between these pools. 

As part of the project we offered fertiliser application equipment calibration, and the machines tested were doing an acceptable job. We used the fertspread tool to complete calculations and produce reports.

While a large number of samples have been sent to the Eurofins lab for analysis, we are also using the Nitrate Quick Test to assess nitrate in the soil at three depths in each plot.  When we compare the results of the quick test with lab results, we find a good agreement. The key is making sure the soil sampling is done correctly so it is representative.

Many thanks to the growers hosting and supporting the trials, and the NZAC and Our Land and Water for support and funding.

The post Asparagus Nitrogen Management appeared first on LandWISE Staging.

Focusing on sweetcorn, tomatoes, beetroot and green beans, we are comparing current farm practice with either the “Nutrient Management for Vegetable Crops in New Zealand” guidelines or some alternative rate.

Despite a late start and tricky spring, we established trials in six Hawke’s Bay paddocks, with solid support from the farmers and process companies.

Our summer intern, Bram helped considerably in getting trials established, taking many soil samples and conducting numerous Nitrate Quick Tests, supported by lab analyses completed by Eurofins.

We harvested five full trials; 1 green bean crop, two tomato crops and two sweetcorn crops. The data are still being analysed – results at the LandWISE AGM Seminar in June.

A sixth crop of beetroot  ended up with no alternative fertiliser rate after the last application was deemed not only unnecessary, but likely to result in oversize bulbs for the baby-beet specification.

Similar trials in 2022-2023 will provide information of practice and effects on the same crop selections in a different season.

Many thanks to McCain Foods, Heinz-Watties and Hawke’s Bay Regional Council for co-funding, the farmers hosting trials, and MPI for financial support.

The post Update – BMPS for process vegetable crops appeared first on LandWISE Staging.

Bram spent much of the summer sampling the asparagus and process crops we are researching, and doing many, many Nitrate Quick Tests. Here he is taking soil samples from a squash paddock.  This was part of the Sustainable Vegetable Systems project being run by Vegetables Research and Innovation, Potatoes NZ and Agrilink. Our Asparagus Nitrate Best Management trial took Bram to Hastings, Manawatu and Mangaweka. And he was busy in Hawke’s Bay, sampling for our Best Nitrate Management for Process Crops project.

We were delighted to host Bram this season, and to show him some of the farming systems we work with and research methods we use.

Many thanks to Bram, and Callaghan Innovation for support via the R&D Experience grants programme.

The post Bram, our 2022 Summer Intern appeared first on LandWISE Staging.