Soil Health is a vital part of your orchard health and production. Without healthy soil, your trees will suffer, which in turn increases the incidence of pests and Phytophthora, reducing your crop size and ultimately, your income.
Soil is like a 3-prong stool with 3 important ways to test the soil to give you the best picture of what is happening. If you carry out only one of the three tests, you are only getting part of the picture. When you visually look at the soil, you can see whether there are healthy worms and vegetation. If the soil is hard, silty and no worms are present, plus vegetation is scarce or trees are yellow, then there is an imbalance which needs correcting.
Traditionally, you would carry out a chemical soil test which will show you are lacking in an element in the leaves and your fertilizer rep will recommend you add some more of the missing element to your fertilizer even if that element is high in your soil test results. This will add to the problem. Obviously, there is something that is stopping your trees taking up nutrients from your soil such as an imbalance of microbes.
To get the best from your trees, you need to look after them. To help with this, we are offering a bundle of 3 Soil tests: VSA (Visual Soil Assessment), Chemical testing through Hills Laboratory (or a lab of your choice), and biological testing through Soil Foodweb Laboratory. One of our trained staff will come to your orchard to perform the VSA and collect samples for the laboratories. The cost is $150 + GST and mileage for our part of the soil tests. The laboratory tests are additional, charged directly to you.
Our staff are able to collect Soil and Leaf samples on their next monitoring round and will send the samples by courier to the laboratory of your choice. R.J Hills Laboratory is the laboratory chosen by many but there are others also available.
If you need a soil and leaf testing, please call or email Cathy.
Phone: +64 7 281 1034
Email: officeadmin@cropcheck.co.nz