Crop advisors have always paid a lot of attention to the health and vigour of tree canopies, but more progressive advisors are also paying plenty of attention to the roots of their crops, Rob Bower* writes.

A strong, well-structured and efficient root system and, ideally – a vigorous diverse microflora are essential pre-requisites for consistent high yields in tree crops.

In recent years, tree and vine crop growers have taken advantage of NitroGuard, a microbial inoculum that allows high yields with reduced N fertiliser rates.

Nature meets science with NitroGuard

As well as fixing N from atmospheric N2 into the crop, the microbes produce plant growth factors including auxins and these stimulate the development of strong secondary and tertiary root growth.

This is shown clearly in the image below and this root growth improves capture of any applied nitrogen before it is lost to leaching or volatilisation. This leads directly to improved nitrogen use efficiency.

Pear roots showing strong secondary root development six weeks after application of NitroGuard. 

A standard season’s use of NitroGuard consists of two applications during the season, combined with a reduction of about 20 per cent in N fertiliser rates.

With N fertiliser rates currently high and likely to stay high, combined with increasing recognition of the importance of roots systems in driving consistent high yields across different seasons, use of a high quality microbial inoculum makes more sense every year.

Growers and advisors can view our many field trials on the mabiotec website.

*Rob Bower is Managing Director, Mapleton Agri Biotec. robbower@mabiotec.com