Due to the changing levels of COVID-19 restrictions around the country, the Vegetable Crop Nutrition Masterclass made the move to an online format in 2020.

The result of this change led to an over-subscription to the program, with vegetable growers, agronomists, and other industry representatives attending from every state in Australia for sessions held on 12 and 13 August. The highlight was the breakout sessions on day two, with six groups developing and presenting nutrient management plans.

Digging into the detail of vegetable crop nutrition the training covered the knowledge and principles necessary to develop and manage crop nutrition programs on vegetable farms.

Beginning with a deeper understanding of soil functions and underlying soil conditions.

The program also outlined the importance of soil structure for vegetable crop growth and the role organic matter plays in this and in nutrient cycling and soil biology.

Opportunities for more efficient use of crop nutrition and the role that cover crops can play in both storing and releasing nutrients were flagged.

Among the Masterclass attendees was EnviroVeg Coordinator Danielle Park, who found the program beneficial as it highlighted a number of cross-collaboration opportunities.

“Linking through to quality, up-to-date resources and research is important for the EnviroVeg program. The Masterclass has been an excellent opportunity to learn from those with a wealth of expertise and experience. Decisions around the management of soil, irrigation and nutrition management also included within the EnviroVeg Program,” Danielle says.

“For vegetable growers looking to assess their current practices on-farm and find out whether any of these aspects of their production might benefit from more focus, the EnviroVeg program is one way of finding opportunities for improvement as well as benchmarking against others in your industry.”

For those who were unable to attend the Masterclass, a few handy resources are linked below:

• Soil Wealth Fertiliser Program.
• YARA Fertigation Manual.
• IPNI Canada Crop Nutrient Removal Calculator.

For more information on EnviroVeg, click here.

The Vegetable Crop Nutrition Masterclass has been made possible by the Hort Innovation-funded Soil Wealth and ICP project – jointly delivered by RM Consulting Group and Applied Horticultural Research.

The EnviroVeg Program 2017-2022 (VG16063) is a strategic levy investment under the Hort Innovation Vegetable Fund. It is funded by Hort Innovation using the vegetable research and development levy and contributions from the Australian Government.