Healthy Plants Start with Healthy Soil: A 4-Step Program for Success
As the horticulture industry becomes more educated on water treatment and sanitation practices, growers are seeing healthier plants with reduced production costs. Integrating a soil program into your best management practices (BMPs) will further reduce costs, effectively increasing profits. With proper soil or growing media protocols in place, growers can limit fertilizer loss, increase nutrient uptake, reduce risk and exposure to diseases and contaminants, and also decrease water usage. BMP guidelines for soil management include soil testing and how growing media choice affects water and nutrient management. The rising costs of growing media, coupled with chemical and fertilizer output, means there’s no better time to re- evaluate growing media selection.
There are many factors you needs to consider when implementing a soil program. Here is a 4-step program to aid in program development and to enhance BMPs.
1. Soil Testing
Soil testing is a critical first step in program development. Determining pH, electrical conduc- tivity (EC) and fertility level of soil is an excellent start. This can improve crop production to protect the environment from runoff contamination and leaching of excess fertilizers. Adding this step to your soil program will aid in improving the nutri- tional balance of growing media and reduce costs by using only the amount of fertilizer needed. Testing growing media for diseases is also an important step for determining the biological culture of soil, which can aid in proper pesticide selection.
2. Biological Culture of Soil
Soil testing will help you understand the biological culture of the media. There are simple chemical changes that can be made to improve soil by understanding its biological makeup. Excess pathogenic biologicals require proper sanitation and pesticide application for removal. Lack of beneficial microbes can limit the plant’s nutrient uptake and cause stress, especially in transplants. You can add a variety of pesticides and beneficials to ensure your growing media has a healthy biolog- ical culture.
3. Sanitation of Soil Media
Growing media sanitation is fre- quently overlooked in nurseries and greenhouses, but since soils host many pathogens, such as Phytoph- thora, growing media sterilization needs to be addressed. It is important to sterilize media to prevent contami- nation. There are many economical and effective sterilization chemicals that can be successful. One example is peroxy compounds. This chemistry has been deemed a viable alternative to methyl bromide, which has many restrictions and limitations.
4. Beneficial Consideration
After soil has been properly steril- ized, there is a chance the biological culture will be lacking the proper beneficials. There are many forms of beneficial microbes available, there- fore it is important to use ones that don’t compete and add to soil makeup. Look for beneficials that recycle nutri- ents, promote plant growth, induce systemic resistance and help solubilize minerals. Some of these include, but are not limited to, Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus megaterium, Trichoderma harzianum and Trichoderma reesei.
Implementing a complete soil program as part of your BMPs is an essential component of healthy crop production. First, soil testing will improve crop production and help reduce runoff contamination. Understanding your soil is essential to reduce operating costs. Next, it is critical to add soil sanitation to your program. There are a multitude of alternatives to harsh chemicals like methyl bromide, peroxy compounds being an effective choice. The final step for success in achieving healthy soil is to add non-competing ben- eficial microbes to promote plant growth. Creating an easy-to-follow program now will lead to a future of healthy and efficient crop cycles.
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