Soil structure visibly improved
Iin the 2nd year of the strip cultivation trial at Van den Borne Potatoes, the soil structure has further improved, the clod from the ridge falls apart nicely, with no sharp edges.
The most striking thing is NOT to see: the soil smells different from the ordinary plots, slightly more forest floor smell.
Want to see, dig and smell this for yourself? Send us a message and we'll invite you for a tour with some colleagues.
Comparison with adjacent maize plot
All cultivation is done without artificial fertilisers. We use compost, vitalised cattle manure (with impact powder), Plant Catalyst (micellar water with lignite), several passages of compost tea, rock flour, vitalised seedlings, planting material and seeds, soil conditioners for faster digestion and stimulation of soil fungi, ...
During cultivation, we adjust with trace elements and amino acids, i.f. leaf juice analyses and/or heat stress.
The aim is to keep photosynthesis going at all times so that the rhizosphere can convert plant exudates into stable carbon.
In 3 years, we want to have a resilient soil that can stand comparison with a Bio plot.
65 tonnes of onions (on the strip that had not been sprayed ... ), 65 and 70 tonnes of Lady Anna on the potato strips, which actually stopped 4-5 weeks early (!). 1x top-up with thin fraction pig manure in the row clearly brought more yield, to be extended for next season.
Beautiful structure after harvesting 70 tonnes of potatoes without fertiliser
Top soil from the adjacent maize plot, bottom the Strip crop. Look at the colour difference!
Top-up with slurry between rows
In the trials Potato in Strip Cultivation and Artificial Manure-Free, we applied top-up fertiliser with this beautiful machine: 15 and 20m² of thin pig slurry (about 2.5kg N)
Most of the manure runs nicely along the plants in the front between the rows. Here and there some sticks to the leaves, but we didn't see any burning of it afterwards.
The fertilising effect is evident in the crop stand 10 days later.
