Run in conjunction with McCain Foods, Heinz-Watties and Hawke’s Bay Regional Council with support from the Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund, this  project builds on work started under the Future Proofing Vegetable Production project.

Focusing on sweetcorn, tomatoes, beetroot and green beans, we are comparing current farm practice with either the “Nutrient Management for Vegetable Crops in New Zealand” guidelines or some alternative rate. 

Despite a late start and tricky spring, we established trials in six Hawke’s Bay paddocks, with solid support from the farmers and process companies.

Our summer intern, Bram helped considerably in getting trials established, taking many soil samples and conducting numerous Nitrate Quick Tests, supported by lab analyses completed by Eurofins. 

We harvested five full trials; 1 green bean crop, two tomato crops and two sweetcorn crops. The data are still being analysed – results at the LandWISE AGM Seminar in June.

A sixth crop of beetroot  ended up with no alternative fertiliser rate after the last application was deemed not only unnecessary, but likely to result in oversize bulbs for the baby-beet specification.

Similar trials in 2022-2023 will provide information of practice and effects on the same crop selections in a different season. 

Many thanks to McCain Foods, Heinz-Watties and Hawke’s Bay Regional Council for co-funding, the farmers hosting trials, and MPI for financial support.