Reducing food safety risks from manures

Manures have been used to improve agricultural soil fertility for over 7,000 years. Manures add nutrients and organic matter, increase soil bulk density, enhance structure and water holding capacity and increase biodiversity.

Unfortunately, manures can contain pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli (E. coli), Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, Campylobacter spp., Yersinia enterocolitica and others. Even a small dose of some of these human pathogens – particularly some species of Salmonella and types of E. coli – can cause severe illness and even death.

Plant growth promoting microbes

Plants naturally produce five major plant hormones (phytohormones) including auxins or indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), cytokinins, gibberellins, abscisic acid and the gaseous hormone, ethylene. It is a combination and balance of these hormones that regulate many aspects of plant growth, development and reproduction. The first three hormones are recognised as being plant growth promoting, whereas abscisic acid and ethylene are considered to be growth inhibitors due to their effect on plant abscission (the shedding away or cutting off of different parts of the plant)

Balanced nutrition & feeding

Neutrog’s Microbiologist and R&D Manager, Dr. Uwe Stroeher talks about balanced nutrition for your plants.

We know that a balanced diet is required for us to be healthy and to perform at our peak, and for plants it is no different. Plants need balanced nutrition.

Often people look at a packet of fertiliser but only look for levels of nitrogen, phosphate and potassium, but plants need so much more. Other critical nutrients which are required in relatively high levels are things like sulphur, magnesium and calcium as well as a whole range of trace or micronutrients such as iron, zinc, manganese – the list goes on. There are a plethora of plant issues related to the incorrect feeding of plants, but these can be overcome by using a nutritionally-balanced fertiliser and feeding your plants on a regular basis.

Transplanting and the role of soil microbes

In this article, Microbiologist and R&D Manager, Dr. Uwe Stroeher talks about transplanting your plants and what role soil microbes play.

It might seem strange to think about this in August, but before we know it, the weather will warm up and then it’s really too late to move many plants. The stress of moving them, together with the potential for a very warm day or two is probably is not worth the risk to wait too much longer.

Tag: soil microbes