Mathieu Ngouajio

Dept. Horticulture

2009 Asparagus Symposium

Lima Peru
 Industry Challenges
• A major challenge of the
asparagus industry is the
replant suppression problem

Poor new plant establishment in

fields that were previously used
to grow asparagus
 Replant suppression
• Biggest threat to asparagus
production worldwide
• More pronounced in regions
with long tradition of
asparagus production
 Replant suppression
• The US asparagus
industry is over 150
years old
• Limited availability
of virgin grounds
• Old fields are
replanted
• Establishment is
poor
• Field longevity is
reduced Poor stand
• Profitability is not
guaranteed
• How to manage asparagus
replant problem?

• Can horticultural practices

help reduce the impacts of
the problem?
Early civilizations
recognized that
growing the same
crop (or similar
crops) on the same
area “sickened the
soil”
In 1907 Liberty
Hyde Bailey
recommended crop
rotation as a
“cleaning process”
for “sick soils”
 be
r s
• Limited: every 10-15
um
C
u c yrs between crops
To
ma

Cu
Not an option
to e

cu
m
s

be
rs
once a field is
established
Problems of sick soils caused
by lack of adequate crop
rotation include:
 imbalance in nutrient
availability
 build
build--up of diseases,
nematodes, insects and weeds
 high concentrations of harmful
chemicals from plant root
excretions or decaying plant
tissues
Soil microbial
biodiversity was
shown to decline in
asparagus fields, Organic amendments
suggesting could be used to
microbial mitigated the
community negative effects of
reorganization monoculture and
(Hamel et al. 2005) potentially reduce
soil microbial
community shifts.
 Soil microbial activity
 Asparagus yield

In a replant situation
(Dairy Compost) 25
25--12.5 t/ha

5 t/ha

19 L/ha

Hydrogen Peroxide 19 L/ha

• Untreated
crowns • Treated crowns
• Unfumigated •Fumigated field
field
2007

Site 1

Site 2
Soil microbial
biomass was
determined using
the chloroform
fumigation Biolog EcoPlates®
incubation method method was used to
(Jenkinson and study bacterial
Pawlson 1976) community
structure: Shannon
Shannon--
Weaver index of
microbial diversity
(H’) was calculated
 The method is based on microplate techniques
 Each microplate has 96 wells
 Each plate contain 31 unique C substrates +
control (replicated three times)
 The pattern of substrate utilization provides a
unique fingerprint for each community and for
each species.
 a Compost
16
Mustard bran
14 b
SoilBuilder®
C/g soil/day

12 c
10
c Control
8 a
ug CO2-C/g

6 b b b
4
2
0

Unfumigated Site Fumigated Site

 Compost & mustard bran increase soil microbial pop
 Big contrast between the two sites
Increasing the total soil
microbial population is
good
but we also need to
increase the population
of functional groups of
microorganisms
 7 Day Incubation
Compost Mustard bran
SoilBuilder® Treated control
Shannon index (H’) of diversity

3 a
a
ab
2.8 ab b
b
b

2.6 c

2.4

2.2
Unfumigated Site Fumigated Site

 Mustard bran & compost increase Functional diversity

 Similar response in the two sites
Plots were harvested
14--15 times in 2009 for
14
Yield and spear count
 2009 yield
2500

Spear weight Site A (Non Fumigated)

NS
2000
Spear weight (g/plot)

1500

Compost
1000
Mustard
SoilBuilder
500 ControlT
ControlU

Harvest date
 2009 yield
250
Spear count Site A (Non Fumigated)

200
Spearcount (#/plot)

a
ab
ab
150 b
b

100 Compost
Mustard
50
SoilBuilder
ControlT
ControlU
0

Harvest date
 2009 yield
3500

Spear weight Site B (Fumigated)

3000
a
ab
abc
2500
Spear weight (g/plot)

bc
c
2000

1500 Compost
ControlT
1000
Mustard
SoilBuilder
500
TerraClean

Harvest date
 2009 yield
250

Spear count Site B (Fumigated.)

NS
200
Spearcount (#/plot)

150

100
Compost
ControlT
Mustard
50 SoilBuilder
TerraClean

Harvest date
• The yield response varied with site
• More positive response in the
unfimigated soil >> Confirming the
positive effect of soil fumigation
• Crown treatment and compost
application seemed to have positive
effects in the unfumigated field
• SoilBuilder
SoilBuilder®® and TerraClean
TerraClean®® seemed
to reduce yield
Need for more observations overtime to
clearly determine the long term effects of
the soil amendments under investigation
 Mich. Asp. In-kind
Res. Com. Grower

 M Hausbeck
 D Warncke  Tom & Rick
 B Zandstra Oomen
 N Myers  Ken & Ralph
 J Bakker
Oomen
 J Counts
 Students