McCain Foods Green Beans

Planting

Dwarf green beans for McCain Foods were planted in all treatments on the 28th of December. All treatments were planted in beans, Conventional and Hybrid treatments ex. peas, and the Regen treatment ex. cover crop/fallow. All treatments were disc ripped and rolled one month before planting and regrowth sprayed out four days before planting.

We applied different rates of starter fertiliser to each treatment. In the Hybrid and Regen treatments we added a biological seed treatment. All treatments had the same bean variety planted at the same rate. We are grateful to our good friends at Nicolle Contracting for their patience when planting the trial.

As always, we are measuring lots of thing over the growing season. For the beans, we have been particularly interested in canopy cover, soil nitrogen availability, pest and disease pressure, yield and of course, gross margins.

Canopy Cover

We measure canopy cover percentage weekly using the Canopeo app. There was little difference in the treatments until early Feb when the Regen treatment took off, and canopy size increased at a faster rate. This treatment is visibly taller and ground cover is greater than the other two treatments.

The Hybrid treatment has lagged, probably due to some early slug damage. When the pea vine was disced, some residue remained on the surface, a perfect spot for slugs to hang out. We applied slug bait to all treatments to reduce further damage.

Disease Presence

The main disease issue we are worried about in beans is sclerotinia. We have so far applied one protectant fungicide to each treatment to protect against sclerotinia, as well as botrytis (different products depending on treatment).

Earlier in February we noted that there was young leaves wilting, most prominently in the Conventional and Hybrid treatments, however was apparent to a lesser degree in the Regen. A thorough inspection by Ben Prebble (McCain Foods) and Shelley Bath (Horticentre) concluded that we were starting to see signs of fusarium. Diagnosis was through the presence of brown/purple, woody lower stems. Phosphorus acid application is planned to treat the fusarium as soon as we have an appropriate spray window.

Pest Presence

A common pest insect in beans is looper caterpillar. Standard McCain Foods practice is to apply an insecticide to knock out caterpillars, when a fungicide is being applied. There are two active ingredients that can be used, neither of which are friendly to beneficial insects/natural enemies. Early in the month we saw some suspected signs of caterpillar chewing, however there are no threshold values to use to trigger spray applications. The Conventional treatment had an insecticide applied (Karate Zeon), however we held off in the other two treatments, as there were no clear signs of damage.

A leaf damage survey was completed following this, which understandably found more damage in the Regen & Hybrid than in Conventional, however still not visually a huge amount of damage. A few caterpillars have been found. We have been recommended a biological alternative, BioBit (Bacillus thuringiensis), which will kill caterpillars but not any eggs. We will likely need more than 1 application, to control the next hatched caterpillars. BioBit will be applied in the next spray window.

Nitrogen Management

We have been closely following nitrate nitrogen levels in the soil. The chart below shows nitrate-N in the top 30 cm from when the Conventional and Hybrid cover crops were sprayed out, through to mid Feb.

Nitrate-N in the Regen treatment has been increasing steadily since the cover crop was mulched in early October. The levels in the Hybrid treatment have been higher than the Conventional since harvest. This is likely due to most of the residue being baled and removed in the Conventional, vs retained and incorporated in the Hybrid.

A typical bean program includes a side dressing of fertiliser which includes nitrogen. A leaf test in early Feb found that nutrient levels were good in all treatments. In discussion with Mark Redshaw (Yara), we decided that because the canopy in the Conventional and Hybrid was less developed than the Regen, these treatments would receive a late application of nitrogen despite tests saying levels were satisfactory. The intent was to give these treatments a boost ahead of harvest.

The Conventional treatment had 200kg/ha of Nitrabor applied, the Hybrid a half rate of 100kg/ha. The Regen is to receive a foliar nutrient application of Croplift to maintain canopy health and this will also be applied to the Hybrid.

Application was completed via Airborne Solutions drone, to apply accurately over plots.

Next Steps

We are approx. 2 – 3 weeks away from harvest, with a target harvest date of 6th of March. Hand harvests will be completed to determine yield, followed by machine harvest.

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Going to the Vegetables Big Day Out in Pukekohe was an amazing opportunity for me to meet people and to learn more about the research and innovation taking place in the vegetable industry.

Being able to see the biodiversity strips, native plant pods (insectaries), and cover crops that are a part of “A Lighter Touch”, then hearing about the differences they are seeing with all three working together was a highlight for me. LandWISE also has native insectaries and has planted biodiversity strips alongside our annual cover crops. It was interesting to hear Howe (Balle Brothers’ crop manager) talk about how he expected they would have to spray an insecticide due to an increased number of aphids. However, they left it for two weeks, and the aphid numbers dropped as the beneficial insects controlled the aphid population without the need for insecticides.

Water quality was a major topic of conversation in many courses I did at university. Therefore, it was very interesting to hear about the cultural indicator tool for water quality monitoring. It is used in evaluating the current state of waterways, as well as determining actions needed to improve the water quality. For me this talk also reinforced how important it is for Mātauranga Māori and science to be integrated.

I also enjoyed listening to the career session for students. It was interesting to hear how everyone ended up in horticulture and why they enjoy it. I particularly liked hearing about the experiences and successes of other young women in the industry.

Thank you, Vegetable Industry Centre of Excellence (VICE), for hosting the Vegetables Big Day Out. It was great to be able to attend such an insightful and interactive event. I would also like to say thank you for giving me a VICE internship, as part of which I will be doing Slakes aggregate stability testing and nitrate testing with a Nitrachek device.

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In the above picture, you can see our McCain Foods pea crop planted into cultivated (Conventional treatment) soil on the left, and into sprayed our mixed cover crop (Hybrid treatment) in the centre. The golden patch is mixed cover crop residue in the Regenerative treatment plot that was mulched on 1 October. Some of the oats, tillage radish and other species remain alive under the mulch.

To completely terminate the cover prior to planting green beans in December, the Operations Advisory Group has decided to run disks over the plots to mix soil into the mulched residue to hasten its breakdown. They recommend spraying urea and a digester on to the residue first, to support the microbe population increase needed to chew through about 11 t/ha of biomass dry matter.

One of our big unknowns, is whether we can terminate the cover crops using a roller-crimper. Our literature and phone-calls-to-farmers research suggest timing is absolutely critical, and it is unlikely multiple species will be just right on the same day. We found for example, that the tillage radish was setting seed while the oats were not sufficiently mature for crushing. In our Regenerative treatment plots, we decided to mulch the five-species mix to avoid adding a gazillion radish seeds to our already well-stocked seed-bank.

We have also started termination programmes in the extra cover crops we planted. One crop is the same five-species mix as in the Carbon Positive Regenerative and Hybrid plots. Another is rye corn, one has straight tic beans, and one has tic beans and rye corn.

These crops were planted so we can try things without affecting the Carbon Positive plots. We started crushing strips with a roller-crimper on 10 October and will do more strips over the next few weeks. We are also considering mulching some and spraying any regrowth.

The images below show the bruised bars in the cover crops after roller-crimping. The theory is that once plants reach physiological maturity and flowering, they will not continue new vegetative growth if damaged. Bruising is thought better than cutting.

Thanks to TRS in Hastings for providing the tractor and crimper for these trials. We will be demonstrating it working at our Field Walk on Tuesday 15 October at the LandWISE MicroFarm. Everyone is welcome – but please register for free.

This work is being completed as part of the MPI Funded Carbon Positive project, a joint programme with the Hawke’s Bay Future Farming Trust. We a grateful for our industry sponsors and everyone who contributes through advisory groups, being tolerant contractors, and in many small ways!

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