Wormtech NZ Ltd director Greg Walker announced today that his firm has commenced a major research project relating to soil and leaf microbiology and kiwifruit production.

“In the five years we have been supplying liquid vermicast to growers, we have been seeking a deeper understanding of the role of micro-organisms in kiwifruit nutrition” said Greg.  “We understand the basics and can broadly see why quality vermicast-based products work so well.  And over the years we have built up a core of experience from a number of growers who have variously reported higher yields, better leaf characteristics, earlier fruit, fungicidal properties and occasionally, no apparent benefit. 

“That has been valuable, and has let us develop sound programmes of applications such as Kickstart and Earlyplan, to help growers use the product effectively.  We have also done various trials and tests on compatibilities and got some useful results. But to move ahead – that is, to ensure that we continue to boost orchard profitability - we need more.”

Dave Whalley, Technical Manager at Wormtech, who is overseeing the project, explains. “We are coming at it from two angles, hoping that they will lead us to a common point.  One is to bring together the current thinking surrounding soil science, and to try to understand what are the key drivers of crop production as far as soil microbiology, plant nutrition and above ground crop management are concerned.  We have started talking to some key people about this.  The other is to try to answer the deceptively simple question ‘exactly when, why and how does Wormtech liquid work?’ 

“The scientific method says you should first make observations, second come up with a hypothesis, then test it by experiment.  Our observations of growers using our products have been very encouraging.  But because this is such a new field, our field trials to date have suffered from the lack of a thoroughly developed hypothesis. So we have tested, and sometimes got results, but not been able to tie those together into a useful theory.  The prospect of coming up with some new stuff here is very exciting.”