It's a Groundswell (pardon the pun!)
The Wormtech Report No. 9          

The momentum behind a sustainable, soil health oriented approach to growing better crops has built noticeably this year, according to Wormtech managing director Greg Walker.

“Zespri are to be congratulated for their role in bringing leading US agronomist and medical practitioner Dr Arden Andersen to Tauranga to talk to growers” said Greg.  “Dr Andersen echoed a lot of what we’ve been saying since 2000 - although he put it much more eloquently! 

“Attendances were good and grower interest was high.  He also helped Wormtech in the sense of clarifying some of the science behind managing soil health in the orchard.  This certainly explains why our programmes have been generating good grower feedback. 

“Dr Andersen makes a strong case for a link between soil health, crop quality, human nutrition and ultimately human health.  That’s pretty high-brow stuff.  Most growers will be looking at the first two, and how they can manage them to improve their bottom line, and that’s what we’ve been focused on too.  Marketers like Zespri are increasingly making the links on to customer nutrition and health, and that should benefit us all.”

Getting on with it

Meanwhile, Wormtech director Kevin Massey reports strong interest in the injection of nutrients and beneficial organisms into the topsoil.  “Kiwifruit growers were the first to see the benefits of this – we’ve been injecting Wormtech products, humic acid and DRH Trichoderma using Ground Probe Aerators’ unique Gwazae machines for a couple of seasons now. 

“What‘s really great this year though is how the concept has taken off amongst grape growers.  We sent a machine down to Marlborough in autumn this year, and soon had to send another to cope with demand.  Our guy down there, Boyd Turner, would tee up a job in a vineyard and the next thing, all the neighbours would want to book the machine!

“There are so many advantages, such as promoting root development and reducing fertilizer run-off, over and above the simple decompaction of heavily worked soils.  Fortunately with the late harvest and then a late start of activity on many kiwifruit orchards, we’ve had the spare capacity to cope, but now we’re swinging our attention back to the Bay.”