Recently Jessica Strauss caught up with Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development Principal Research Officer Dr Abul Hashem to talk about research he and Dr Catherine Borger have done on the interaction between soil pH, weeds and crops. Soil acidity limits productivity on approximately 50% of Australia’s agricultural land and several important weed species have a competitive advantage over broadacre crops on soils where the surface soil pH level is less than 5.5 or the subsurface pH is less than 4.8.Dr Hashem said efforts to improve soil pH had a two-pronged effect on crop production. “Firstly, agricultural crops yield better when they are grown in soils where the pH is in the optimal zone and secondly, crops are better able to compete with weeds. Having lower weed numbers in-crop means the herbicides applied are more likely to be effective and also there is less potential for weed seed to be added to the soil’s seed bank.”In this podcast, Dr Hashem explains there's still further work needed in this space to explain exactly what's going on, but the results do show a clear benefit when applying lime to crops. Music: bensound.com
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