New technologies to optimize fertilizer and update best management practices for vegetables

Lead Applicant: Mary Ruth McDonald

Research Priority: Soil Health

Program Type: Tier 1

Funding Cycle: 2024/2025

Research Centre: Ontairo Crops Research Centre - Bradford

Research Summary: The fertilizer recommendations for many vegetable crops have not been updated since the 1970's.  Growers of high-value vegetable crops such as onions, celery and carrots are tissue testing throughout the season and applying foliar fertilizer, mostly based on the recommendations of fertilizer suppliers, which tend to be proprietary and sometimes recommend more.  There is a new technology for on-site, real-time tissue testing from Picketa that can detect deficiencies or excess nutrients in plants. There are also new, commercially available bacterial endophytes, Envita and Utrisha N, that can fix nitrogen in leaves and reduce the amount of fertilizer nitrogen needed for crop growth. The proposed research will assess these technologies for onions, celery and carrots on muck and mineral soils (only muck for celery) and contribute to updated fertilizer recommendations for these crops.