GROWCOM’S Hort360 program has developed a new case study video highlighting how technology is being used on-farm to tackle drainage and soil health.
Hort360 is a best management practice program for horticulture.
Strawberry and ginger grower, John Allen, grows around 600 000 strawberry plants and 28 hectares (70 acres) of ginger annually in Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast.
"Our terrain is flat and the soil is a sandy Wallum-type soil, inherently poorly drained and inherently infertile," Mr Allen said.
The significant challenges presented by his soil type have prompted John to turn to technology for solutions.
Mr Allen is now using EM38 technology to generate maps which give a good analysis of the state of his soil.
"The EM38 soil mapping is an electromagnetic survey of the soil profile," he said.
"We went down to a depth of 1.5 meters which told us the EC of the soil - this is influenced by the amount of clay in the soil and also the amount of water."
Mr Allen is also working with Growcom to generate NDVI data for his property, mapping levels of vegetation across the farm.
When the NDVI data was overlayed with the EM38 soil profile information, it was clear there was a link between the state of the soil and the amount of crop produced.
The clear message coming from the NDVI and EM38 work is the importance of soil health, with Mr Allen already putting in place plans to look after his biggest asset.
"Particularly with our ginger crop, our concentration is on soil health. It's all about the microbial content of our soil," he said.
"We will be moving towards higher carbon soils, more green manures, more carbon-based fertilisers, less chemical fertilisers and hopefully that's going to reflect on the run-off from the farm, and the nutritional leaching from the farm."
Mr Allen said the technology, which has given him a better understanding of the limitation of his soil, will also allow him to make better management decisions around nutrition, irrigation and even drainage.
"I think there is good potential there," he said.
"It gives us another layer of information and another method of surveying our crop. I expect that we will use the information to vary our nutrition program, to vary maybe irrigation; certainly the NDVI will help us with that."
- Copy supplied by Growcom.