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…
Category: Pests
Vegetables Big Day Out
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”,…
Biodiversity at the MicroFarm
Earlier this year we learnt of an interesting project focusing on increasing biodiversity on vegetable farms. The aim of this joint project between A Lighter Touch, Vegetables NZ and Onions NZ is to reduce pest insects in crops by increasing the abundance of beneficial insects on vegetable farms, therefore reducing the need for insecticides. Two…
Lessons from two years of winter cover crops
When the Carbon Positive project began, most of the Operations Advisory Group probably thought “six years = six crops”. Certainly, the focus for the operations group has been on the summer crop(s). A lot of energy has been put into getting the operations right for each treatment. Our winter cover crops, initially thought to be just…
More questions than answers – Regenerative Ag
LandWISE Project Manager Alex Dickson discusses some of her thoughts on Regenerative Agriculture after her trip to Europe in June. As I grapple with my own understanding of Regenerative Agriculture (RA), a trip to Europe was just the thing I needed to provide me with more questions than answers! EU Green Deal- Farm to Fork…
Rebuilding Our Soils – Successful Conference
Many thanks to everybody involved in our 2024 Annual Conference! All up we had 99 registrants who heard from 23 amazing presenters and saw 9 different practical demonstrations. Our special thanks to everyone who contributed by sharing their knowledge and experiences, and to delegates for their active interaction. Thanks to Pure Catering and our hosts…
Rebuilding Our Soils
LandWISE 2024 – Rebuilding Our Soils Havelock North – 15-16 May 2024 We are looking forward to our annual conference this week. We will report on our current work with industry, researchers and growers seeking out and trialing best ways to rebuild soil.Our invited speakers will present alternative practices and novel ideas, some perhaps fringe,…
Alternatives for Crop Protection
Presentations at the LandWISE Conference “Rebuilding Our Soils” In the summer of 2023-2024, the LandWISE MicroFarm grew process tomatoes for Heinz-Wattie’s using three alternative management systems: conventional, regenerative, and a hybrid taking from each. One of the principles for a regenerative system is to build natural resilience rather than rely only on a chemical-based crop…
Focus on Agritech
Examples and discussions for horticulture and cropping Sustainable production through technology has been one of the key themes through the history of LandWISE Inc. We started with minimum tillage and strip tillage equipment, then rapidly adopted RTK GPS and autosteer, which we saw unlocked many opportunities for financial and environmental gains. We’ve looked a precision…
January 2024 Tomato Update
The Carbon Positive tomato crop has now been growing for 13 weeks. Our estimated harvest date is the 5th March, so just under six weeks remaining until harvest. All treatments have had a good fruit set and are reasonably disease free (minus a small amount of bacterial speck). We are on track for a good…