With the much needed rainfall that we received this season still ongoing, it’s important to note that extra water can have a detrimental effect on soil fertility. In poor soils where nutrients have little organic matter to cling to, or even in good soils that have already experienced a long and solid drenching, nitrogen, sulfur and boron as well as a host of minerals can reach deficient levels after significant rainfall. Actively growing plants have very low tolerance for waterlogged soil conditions. The new growth push can be anemic early in the season and look chlorotic or abnormally yellow, and crop yields can suffer from the slow start.
Calcium can also reach inadequate levels from leaching and many growers will turn to limestone, but you have to be cautious as limestone’s release of plant-available calcium is typically 3 years behind — it takes time to break down. And overdoing calcium affects the soil’s exchange capacity. There are better ways to get immediate plant-available calcium, like Pacific Gro, our fish fertilizer with chitin. When consumed by beneficial bacteria it produces chitinase, which biologically stimulates microbial life and produces plant-available calcium. Plants respond immediately.
In addition, roots that have been waterlogged can’t adequately respire and fail to grow or die. Compromised roots don’t process nutrients well, and all sorts of deficiencies can develop. Anaerobic microbes become dominant in the soil and generate plant-toxic substances. Anaerobic plant pathogens, (e.g. Phytophthora, Pythium, etc.), proliferate and attack weak root tissues.
Andaman Ag’s solutions can improve upon most circumstances but in this saturated state, applying fertilizer in foliar sprays early in the season will stimulate root exudation and recovery. We like our foliar fertilizer products like Agrostim 10.25-5.40-6.60, Organic Agroprime 11.15-0.25-3.75, Cropstim 14-8-10 and SuperGrow 6-2-12.
We recommend applying our aerobic microbial inoculant, MetaGrow ST, to quickly revert your soils back to aerobic-dominated biology. A field trial last year demonstrated that MetaGrow ST reduced the anaerobic soil microbe population by 99%. It also contains metabolites that provide immediately available plant nutrients and growth-promoting factors that accelerate plant recovery and overall health.
