How important is this magical substance called humus? (continued from May 2015)
Humus
Not only does it positively impact soil structure, gas exchange, water retention, mineral delivery and plant resilience; it also determines how quickly a lack of sunshine will crash a good season.
If your soil contained 2% organic matter and your neighbour’s soil featured 4% organic matter, and you were both impacted by a prolonged period of cloudy weather, here’s what will happen:
After about two days of cloud, your brix levels will begin to fall and pest pressure will begin to increase. By contrast, your neighbour’s crop will not decline.
It may be as long as a week before his crop begins to suffer from a lack of photosynthesis. This phenomenon is partially linked to the fact that humus contains fulvic acid—a natural substance that seems to substitute for a lack of sunlight.
In fact, fulvic acid is often called, ‘the second sun’, in relation to this factor.
Protection against frost
Good brix levels can confer enhanced protection against frost.
Kelp is often used for this purpose, as it is a primary brix-building tool.
Studies in Tasmania several years ago revealed that kelp applications before frost events could provide up to 3C of frost protection.
Of course the most dramatic frost protection strategy involves removing the cause of the problem. Frost crystals are created by a group of organisms called ice-nucleating bacteria. If you can remove these creatures from the leaf surface, you can minimise frost damage.
Thankfully, there is a solution. Nutri-Life Sudo-Shield™ from NTS features massive numbers of a leaf-dwelling organism called Pseudomonas fluorescens. When applied to the leaf, this organism will improve the leaf population of non-ice-nucleating bacteria and subsequently decrease the likelihood of frost damage; these organisms can continue that invaluable service for around four weeks.
We have had tremendous feedback from growers around the world who have escaped the frost damage that has decimated their neighbours, following a foliar application of Nutri-Life Sudo-Shield.
Foliar formulation to lift Brix
An appropriate foliar formulation will rapidly lift brix levels in your crop.
(continues next month)
See this article in Tree Fruit June 2015
