SOIL recovery is at the forefront for vegetable growers who were inundated recently with flood waters on the Northern Adelaide Plains.
An estimated $50 million in damage was caused in the region by the floods, and the focus has turned to getting soil quality back for future crops.
At an Ausveg workshop on Tuesday at a property near Angle Vale, soil scientist Doris Blaesing spoke to growers about restoration of their soils and management of diseases.
Dr Blaesing said the main priority for growers was to put in infrastructure to remove the water.
“The first thing to do is to put ditches through the property to drain the water away,” she said.
“Water can only evaporate or drain, and may not be able to because of higher ground. For example, if you plant a sorghum crop, they would absorb water and dry out the soil, and because plants keep a lot of biomass, you’re reinvigorating the soil with critters and worms.”
Dr Blaesing said when floods occur, the life in the soil gets suffocated, leaving ‘dead soil’.
“The soil out here is still quite wet, but the wind also helps dry it out quicker,” she said.
As for a timeline, Dr Blaesing said it depended on the condition of the soil and could be three to six months to get back on track.
“Growers may need to use mushroom compost or fumic acids to get the soil back to normal, and continue testing the nutrients, salinity and pH levels,”she said.
“They need to watch for soil-borne diseases such as damping off disease, which is normally the main culprit.”
Thorndon Park farm manager Frank Romeo said aerating the soil and mushroom compost seemed to be an immediate solution.
“We want to aerate the ground to get it to dry out, from what I have learnt from the workshop, using the mushroom compost is the only way to do it here with our heavy ground,” he said.
“It’s hard to work with, but everything grows very well.”
The SA Growers Flood Appeal has already raised $70,000 for flood-affected growers.
Ausveg SA, the SA Produce Market and the Horticulture Coalition of SA teamed up last week establish the appeal and rally support for local horticulture growers affected by the recent floods and wild weather.
Ausveg SA state manager Jordan Brooke-Barnett said the growers were still paying for the devastating floods.
“We’d like to crack $100,000, and have a real pot of money to help the growers,” he said.
While growers were still in clean up mode, Mr Brooke-Barnett said it was still a sad state of affairs.
“People have lost their crops that they have worked so hard for,” he said. “Other growers are still trying to get rid of the water. They’ve got a hard task ahead to get the land to dry up and working again.”
Mr Brooke-Barnett said they were extremely grateful for all donations.
“We hoped that the opportunity to speak to soil scientist Doris Blaesing about soil restoration and disease management will help our growers get back on their feet as soon as possible,” he said.
The appeal will fund seedlings and startup costs for growers through charity Foodbank.
