Soil biology and integrated weed management
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BY DIMI KYRIAKOU AND CARL LARSEN RMCG
he Soil Wealth and Integrated Crop Protection (ICP) project works with growers nationally to put soil management and plant health research into practice.
3 BACTERIA and mold growing on agar plates from soil samples.
1 Cover crops and soil biology in vegetable soils
As the year finally draws to a close, this column looks back on the project’s focus topics for 2020 — soil biology and integrated weed management — and highlights a collection of useful resources developed for growers during the year.
As mentioned in the Spring 2020 edition of WA Grower, a recent webinar recording from the Soil Wealth ICP team delved into the impact of cover crops on soil biology using DNA sequencing technology. This technology provides information on soil bacteria, fungi and eukaryote communities to see what changes occur in vegetable soils following cover crops.
The year 2020 was undoubtedly challenging, but for the vegetable and potato growers of Australia it was also a time to focus on the benefits of soil biology and integrated weed management (IWM) in their production systems.
Dr Kelvin Montagu from the Soil Wealth ICP team and microbial ecologist Dr Shane Powell from the University of Tasmania also discussed the diversity of biological communities in vegetable soils and how cover crops and biofumigants impact soil microbial communities.
This approach allowed growers to access a range of useful articles and practical resources to better understand soil biology and IWM, and how they could be applied on-farm to Collection of useful maximise productivity resources developed and profitability.
for growers
This year, the Soil Wealth ICP project put soil biology and IWM research into action to benefit the Australian vegetable and potato industry.
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Soil biology
YOUR PRODUCTION
WA Grower SUMMER 2020
This article outlines three of the top soil biology and IWM resources produced as part of the Soil Wealth ICP project in 2020. Stay tuned for the announcement of the project’s focus topics for 2021 in the coming weeks.
Watch the webinar recording here: soilwealth.com.au/ resources/webinar-recordings/ cover-crops-and-soil-biologyin-vegetable-soils
