Scientists Set out to Enhance Soil Productivity for Tomato Crops
High-intensity crop production systems, such as those used to grow tomatoes, require a lot of water, nutrients, and chemicals to control pests and disease. To explore other options for growers, USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture has awarded Sarah Strauss, a UF/IFAS Associate Professor of soil, water, and ecosystem sciences, a $700,000 federal grant to study ways to increase soil productivity.
“The question we’re asking is, ‘How do we make this high-intensity crop production system more efficient?’” Strauss says. “How can we enhance or improve the soil to reduce disease and pest pressure?”
Strauss and her colleagues will first study tomatoes, because they grow in abundance in Southwest Florida. She and her colleagues hope their results apply to farmers of high-intensity crops throughout the Southeast.
“We want more efficient control of these diseases and pests, which will help productivity,” Strauss adds. “Hopefully, with our findings, growers will also have more control of the nutrients they use to help their crops grow. That could reduce growers’ costs. The idea is, if you have a more resilient system, ultimately a farmer doesn’t have to spend as much.”
Farmers use cover crops when the land is fallow, when cash crops are not growing. Among other benefits, certain cover crops, like sunnhemp, can reduce the likelihood that nematodes will harm cash crops.
“But cover crops also might change soil microbes so that crops require less fertilizer,” Strauss says. “Changing which microbes are in the soil can help keep nutrients available for plants and may protect the plants against some diseases.”
Subscribe Today For
