Elders Manjimup - Shannon MacDonald
Storm damaged
(Hail, high winds and heavy rain)
Background Information
On the 20th December 2008 the south west was battered by high winds and hail virtually flattening Paul Kelly’s 30 acre potato crop located on Channybearup Road, Pemberton.
Damage
The damage, as explained by Paul, was he thought was "beyond recovery". The question posed was, what should he do as his crop was at full row close stage.
Recommendation
After speaking to Dan Sutton (Eco Growth International) his recommendation was to go with several passes of Eco Vital and Express NPK at a rate of 5lt per ha Eco Vital and 5lt per ha of Express NPK, applied the very next day and repeated with the same blend a further two more times.
Results
After speaking to Paul around two weeks later he was very happy with the response of the mix and mentioned that the crop was on its way to a full recovery.
Around late February we had contact with Paul once again to check on the crops stage he mentioned that he had other crops planted at the same time (that he had not used the mix on) and they were not as consistent in size as the ones sprayed with the Eco Vital mix!
Eco Vital @ 5lt per ha
Express NPK @ 5lt per ha
Lucerne WL 925
Pictured above an excellent stand of Lucerne variety WL925
Planted mid January @ 13kg per ha
Work Pre-plant
Previous to sowing Lucerne, area was Ryegrass and Clover based pasture 9Ha area was cultivated and rock picked
Treatments Pre-Plant
Roundup Powermax and Hammer once after paddock was cultivated and again using same chemicals around 3 weeks later after area was irrigated to kill of remaining weeds before planting
- 300Kg/Ha Super Potash 5:1
- Lime@ 2000Kg/Acre
Background information post sowing
Around 1 week after sowing, Lucerne had virtually jumped out of the ground to a great start with a complete and even germination across the entire 9Ha block
Around week4 crop was suffering from what could only be explained as severe heat stress on 70-80% of crop.
Following this we contacted the department of AG who sent someone out to give their opinion on the matter. Their response was either heat stress or the crop having a reaction to a previously used herbicide.
Treatment
Only a matter of days after realizing there was an issue with the Lucerne we applied the following:
- Eco-Vital @ 5Lt/Ha
- Express NPK @ 5Lt/Ha
- with water rate of 100Lt/Ha
(Aquick pass using the center pivot was applied the night before spraying to increase the uptake of fertiliser applied by boomspray next morning)
The plants response was noticed within a day of spraying. The plant appeared to have recovered with leaves opened and standing tall for all but a few small areas. We followed up with a second spray around 2 weeks later using the same rates and added an insecticide for beetle control.
3 Months following
Crop is going onto its second cut for Hay, as you can see by the picture this should yield excellent tonnage
(Fertiliser added after first cut Express NPK @ 5Lt/Ha