It's the Most! Wonderful! Time! Of the Year! Nitrogen Management Workshops are Here!
- What amendments make the most sense for your protected crops?
- Have you been wanting to re-vamp your approach to nutrient management in your tunnel spaces?
- Feel like you aren't quite sure of how much to put on, and when, in order to maximize crop quality and yield?
- Am I able to copy and paste the fertility plan for the outdoor portions of the farm into my greenhouse space?
Composts, meals and manures are good sources of a balanced fertility profile, and do a great job of supplementing 'micronutrients' alongside the big N-P-K. The trouble is, without a well-planned application strategy, we could be significantly reducing the productivity of our greenhouse soils. From increasing pH over time, to sky high levels of phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and magnesium, protected soils can quickly get out of hand if we aren't keeping a close eye
What can we do about it?
We can start by testing our on-farm amendments, using the compost and manure options available through the NSDA soil lab. This test will provide a mineral break-down of whatever on-farm amendments you are using.
Our workshop will start off with a quick presentation talking about how to interpret these reports, with the intention of providing clarity on the line items that are going to help with turning the results into something useable for our fertility plan.
Following the presentations, participants are going to split up into their respective commodity groups. The corresponding Perennia specialist will guide their team through a pre-planned, crop specific example - hint, for greenhouse we will focus tomatoes! The exercise will begin by looking over a few different amendment analyses, crank through the calculations needed to determine how much of that amendment we need for our target crop, and then talk about how and when we should apply that fertility to hit the tomato target!
This is meant to be an opportunity for discussion on soil-based tunnel production, crank through some calculations, and get a better understanding on what our compost and manure analysis is telling us amongst peers! There will be time after the discussion/calculation portion of the workshop to chat amongst the group, and maybe even compare your own amendment and soil analysis reports for your greenhouse spaces.
For more information, or to register for the event, please click here.
Check out the location nearest to you, and I look forward to seeing you there! The event is free, with light snacks, tea and coffee provided during the time we spend together. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any additional questions :)
