Potato delivery to hospitals thanks to fertile soil CU LTIVATION AND TECHNOLOGY sodium. Micro elements include trace elements such as boron, copper, manganese, cobalt, silicon, zinc, iron and molybdenum. The micro elements not only ensure strong plants – also increasing the plant’s defence against pests and diseases –but they also ensure healthier internal substances in the plants, seeds, fruit, and tubers’, Van Gurp explains. It’s an overall picture ‘What we’re seeing is that, in the past 50 years, the mineral, antioxidants and vitamin contents in our staple food has drastically decreased. We believe that human beings profit from healthy nutrition and that’s only available when their food is healthy, which starts with the soil in which it grows’, Marco van Gurp points out. ares of Laura. He stores the total harvest in cubic-metre boxes on his own farm and delivers the table potatoes in ‘hospital’ white paper bags. Start with the soil What Van Woerkom has experienced as advantages isn’t only limited to this practical example, but is also supported by other sectors such as starch potato growing, and by many studies that have already been carried out with the N-xt fertilisation method. The sequence is as Van Woerkom has indicated, says Van Gurp as an expert. ‘We start with the soil, which means that you first need a proper soil analysis. Our starting point is that you can only give a crop proper nutrients if the soil also gets proper nutrients. In simple words, we’ll start with fertilising the soil, only then will we start looking at the potato plant. The soil analysis we’ve done, looks different from what most growers are used to. We’re using the American Kinsey-Albrecht analysis. We send soil samples to a laboratory in the United States. The analysis that follows focuses on the mineral balance in the soil. At the top of the report are the most important percentages of calcium and magnesium. If your results are below the target figures, you need to adjust your fertilisation programme for that, and if the percentages are okay, it’s important to keep them that way. Calcium, magnesium but also potassium and sodium are important, because they are proportional to the structure of the soil. The ideal picture is a clay-humus complex with 60 to 70 percent calcium, 10 to 20 percent magnesium and 2 to 5 percent potassium, depending on whether it’s a sandy or clay soil. This leaves around 10 percent of space for hydrogen, which determines the pH of the soil. Good soil fertility is determined by the presence of macro and micro elements in the right proportion. This ensures the right acid value, the right salt content and possibilities for the plants to take up the minerals. Macro elements besides calcium and magnesium are potassium, sulphur and ‘It’s not only the use of N-xt fertiliser that contributes to an optimum soil chemistry’, underlines the expert on fertilising. ‘A good soil is not only a matter of chemistry, the structure and the soil life are also important. In order to get or keep those things at a good level, other measures are necessary as well, such as not overloading the soil, maintaining a broad crop rotation plan, and adding organic matter and lime. Experiences such as those of grower Van Woerkom teach us that, by using all the measures we’ve mentioned not only the intrinsic quality of the product increases, but pests and diseases actually decrease. This is the overall picture’, Van Gurp emphasises. The www.vruchtbarebodem.nl N-xt website also mentions the human body. ‘What we’re seeing is that in the past 50 years, the mineral, antioxidants and vitamin contents in our staple food has drastically decreased. We believe that human beings profit from healthy nutrition and that’s only available when the food is healthy, which starts with the soil in which it grows’, Van Gurp points out. The results from recent studies also confirm this, an internet search shows. For example, wheat tests have shown that between 1970 and 2000, the iron content in the wheat grains has dropped by 10 to 15 percent. The magnesium content has dropped by 20 to 25 percent and also the zinc content dramatically dropped by 35 to 40 percent. Not only fertilisation and exhaustion of the soil are responsible for that, but breeding with the focus on yield potential can also be considered a factor. Selection based on the highest possible wheat yields and exhaustion of the soil are mentioned as possible causes. The consequences can be observed in man himself. Around 60 percent of all Americans are now suffering from a lack of magnesium. According to the RIVM (National Institute of Public Health and the Environment) that’s also already 20 to 30 percent of all the people in the Netherlands. If the soil lacks trace elements or minerals, there won’t be enough of them in food and therefore also not in man or animal. The amount of trace elements that a human being should have, taking a body weight of 70 kilograms, is 8.6 grams in total. This amount is necessary for the chemical processes that keep our bodies alive, you can read on the vruchtbarebodem.nl website. ● Leo Hanse Potato World 2017 • number 2 45 Pagina 44
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