Dr Jason Condon
Project Leader
Charles Sturt University
Australian soils commonly exhibit multiple constraints to plant productivity. Soil sodicity, acidity, nutrient deficiencies or toxicities and poor structure limit root growth. Such limitations may be driven by soil constraints that limit root exploration of the soil or may be the result of interactions between plant and the soil solution, including biological interaction and processes.
While plant species and variety may influence the impact of constraints, this project has aimed to investigate the effectiveness of inorganic and organic amendment to soils to overcome yield restrictions induced by the soil.
Six collaborating grower groups identified their priority soil constraints and soils to be included in this project. The six groups were the Birchip Cropping Group, FarmLink, Riverine Plains, Central West Farming systems, Hart Field-Site Group Inc. and Wimmera Catchment Management Authority.
Soils were collected from each collaborating grower group from three layers within their profiles which were then used in a series of experiments that aimed to quantify the benefit to the soil of amendments to plant performance and create an understanding of the mechanisms responsible for observed effects.
Read our final project report and fact sheet to learn more.
