search.noResults

search.searching

note.createNoteMessage

search.noResults

search.searching

orderForm.title

orderForm.productCode
orderForm.description
orderForm.quantity
orderForm.itemPrice
orderForm.price
orderForm.totalPrice
orderForm.deliveryDetails.billingAddress
orderForm.deliveryDetails.deliveryAddress
orderForm.noItems
research update


Fumigant alternative showing promise


Composting in rapsberry replant trials has worked well in terms of plant growth and nematode suppression. By Judie Steeves


W


ith new restrictions now in place on fumigants commonly used when raspberry fields are replanted, research has been underway into other ways of improving conditions for newly-planted raspberries, and at least one shows promise.


Federal government soil scientist Tom Forge, now with the Summerland Research and


Development Centre, but formerly at Agassiz, has been working with several other industry professionals on raspberry replant trials in Clearbrook since 2009 and found that compost used when replanting helps to suppress root nematode populations.


Used instead of fumigating prior to replanting, it was nearly as successful in the first year as fumigation.


However, plant growth was better in the fumigated sites.


Tom Forge


The second year, Forge says, he was surprised to see that the compost still worked well in terms of plant growth and nematode suppression compared to the plots where the soil was fumigated in the fall prior to spring planting of young raspberries.


The aim of the research was to identify alternative pre-planting soil


management practices that would reduce populations of parasitic nematodes, while improving the health of the soil and helping young plants get established — all without having adverse effects on the environment, he explains. In preparing for the experiment, he says they took out an old raspberry planting infested with root lesion nematodes. They ploughed and harrowed the field, then marked out plots to be fumigated, those to be planted with a cover crop, those to receive poultry manure and those to receive compost. There was also a control plot.


In the first year, both the manure and compost plots were successful at suppressing root nematode


populations, but conditions in the cover crop and control plots were not.


However, a concern in the manured plots was that there was much higher nitrogen. Because it was higher than the plants could use, there was a risk of nitrate leaching into groundwater sources with that treatment, he notes.


In compost, on the other hand, the nitrogen is released more slowly, over a longer period of time, which benefits plant growth without doing harm to the aquifer, he notes.


The Pest Management Regulatory Agency has expressed concerns in the past few years about


18 British Columbia Berry Grower • Spring 2017


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24