The second MicroFarm Open Day date will focus on beans, sweetcorn and water management.
The green beans are destined for McCain Foods Hastings plant. The four micropaddocks include demonstrations of:
- Two row spacings 20″ and 15″
- Four plant populations
- Different varieties
- Drip vs spray irrigation
- Phosphorus: non vs normal vs double rate
- Herbicide management variations
Sweetcorn demonstrations
- Strip-till
- No irrigation
- Drip irrigation
- Very late spray irrigation
Irrigation discussion
- Soil monitoring records from 2013-2014 crops
- Where crops are getting water from
- Impact of drought stress
- Cost of drought stress
More details on the MicroFarm website
Many thanks to:
Ballance AgriNutrients, BASF Crop Protection, Centre for Land and Water, ThinkWater, Netafim, HydroServices, McCain Foods, FruitFed Supplies, Agronica NZ, Nicolle Contracting, Te Mata Contractors, Drumpeel Farms, Agnew Hort, Greville Ground Spraying, True Earth Organics, Tasman Harvesting, Plant & Food Research and Peracto Research for support with this work.