July-August - 25

ORGANIC GROWER: PLANT & SOIL HEALTH
UNSURPRISING TO ME, BECAUSE I ALREADY
SUSPECTED IT, CHICKEN MANURE WAS THE MOST
EFFECTIVE IN REDUCING NEMATODE NUMBERS.
- MARISOL QUINTANILLA, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR,
DEPARTMENT OF ENTOMOLOGY, MICHIGAN STATE
UNIVERSITY
" We have a more vigorous crop, a
more vigorous root system, and the
plants stay healthy longer for more
of the growing season than in the
past, " she said. " Plant pathogens and
plant parasites thrive in unhealthy
soil, and we think what is happening
is that we've improved our soil health
over time. "
The change was made because
the cost of fumigation had begun to
outweigh the benefits, Carr said. The
farm last fumigated in 2014.
" The benefits of crop rotation
and cover cropping and compost
are not immediate, " she said. " It
was a challenge to work through
those first few years. We had to be
really patient. "
Sackett samples for nematodes
in the fall, in the spring and twice in
the summer. Carr said. Fields with
less soil resilience have not seen a
noticeable drop in nematodes, she
said, and are a work in progress -
and indicative of the constant
vigilance needed to fight potato
early die complex.
" Verticillium, which is one piece of
the potato early die complex, comes
in on feed, and you establish it in your
soil after growing crop after crop of
potatoes, " she said. " There's potato
early die risk involved if you plant
potatoes. The risk is always there. "
Quintanilla hopes that her lab's
research can arm growers to better
manage that risk.
" We are trying to understand the
dosages that are needed, the exact
compost that we need to use, the
compost and manures that are the
most beneficial, the microorganisms
that are most affected, (and) how can
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we increase these numbers of the
most beneficial microorganisms, "
she said. " Our objective is to
increase sustainability so that
you can reduce some pests and
diseases, reduce some chemical
control, reduce some of the cost
to the grower and increase the
sustainability so that a field can
be productive and suppress some
of these pests and diseases
for longer. "
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July-August

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