22 April 2021
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Routine testing and balanced nutrition advice
EAST Yorkshire independent agronomist, Richard Johnson, has shared advice on potato crops grown on challenging soils in the Wolds and his strategy of routine tissue testing and timely application of balanced nutrition is key to healthy, high yielding crops.
“Many of the potato crops I look after aren’t irrigated which has its challenges, but when this is combined with a stony soil profile that has high levels of calcium, and a high pH, then nutrition is really important,” explains Richard.
“Alkaline soils tend to lock-up magnesium, making it unavailable to the plant and in mid-summer when the crops have drought pressure, they can come under immense stress,” says Richard.
As well as magnesium deficiency, Richard also measures low levels of phosphorus when carrying out routine tissue testing. “We can pre-empt the results of our tissue tests which generally show low magnesium and phosphorus levels.
To read the full feature, see the May issue of Potato Review. You can subscribe here.
