1 / 19

One Seed For Change Initiative NGO Sustainable Agric-education

SOILS- Enlightening and Empowering the World to Improve Food Security, Lives and Livelihoods in a sustainable way.

BlessedFergie
Download Presentation

One Seed For Change Initiative NGO Sustainable Agric-education

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Soil fertility and crop growth DONE BY: Raajshree Sugrim LOCATION: Surrey Village, Lopinot  Trinidad, West Indies

  2. MAPS

  3. Objectives: At the end of this Learning session farmers will be able to: 1) Know more about the properties of fertile soil. 2) Grow and harvest healthy tomatoes plants.

  4. Anatomy of Plant Root

  5. What is soil fertility and how does it affect crop growth? • This refers to the ability of the soil to supply essential plant nutrients and water in adequate amounts and proportions for plant growth and reproduction. This is done in the absence of toxic substances which may inhibit plant growth.

  6. What is the soil made up of ?

  7. Soil Components 

  8. Differences between fertilized soils and unfertilized soils 

  9. Blossom End Rot(Black bottom tomatoes)

  10. What causes blossom end rot? • Blossom end rot is caused by the tomato plant not being able to get enough calcium to the developing fruit. It is not caused by a plant disease like a fungus or bacteria. Blossom end rot may also occur in peppers, melons, eggplants, squash and cucumbers.

  11. Factors why the tomato plants don’t get enough calcium: • Moisture – Too little or too much • Too much Nitrogen The nitrogen salts may make the calcium in the soil less available to the tomatoes. • Soil too Cold at Planting cold soil can interfere with nutrient uptake to the plant. • Root damage due to cultivation Aggressive digging around your plants (for weed control, for instance) may damage the roots. This would also interfere with nutrient uptake. • Soil pH too high or too low – Either extreme of pH can make it difficult for your tomatoes to thrive

  12. Prevention and Control methods for the previous factors:  • Maintain steady levels of moisture to your plants-use straw mulch to help keep the soil from drying out. If rains fail, make sure to give your plants a good soaking 1 to 2 times a week. Stick your fingers in the dirt around the tomato and make sure it's soaked several inches down. You can also try water cones or soaker hoses to deliver a slow, steady supply of water. If stuck with heavy rains, trench drainage away from your tomatoes (if possible).

  13. FARMER WATERING TOMATO PLANTS TO PROVIDE MOISTURE

  14. Use a Balanced Fertilizer- Aged manure or compost is great, as tomatoes are heavy feeders – just don't use too much fresh stuff. There are also good organic fertilizers available to help give your plants a jump start. • Make sure your soil is warm enough, but not too hot- Tomato seeds need soil temps of at least 60°F (15.6°C) to germinate. Transplants can go into soil above 55°F (13°C), but growth will be slow. A general rule of thumb is to wait for nighttime temperatures to be above 55°F. You can easily test your soil temps with a soil thermometer. To raise soil temperature, you can cover your planting area with black or red plastic – or be patient.

  15. Avoid working too close to the roots of the tomato plant- Pull weeds when you need to, but don't attack the ground close to the tomato with your hoe. Mulching helps limit the need for cultivation. • Check your soil pH before planting- A soil pH around 6.2 to 6.8 is best for tomatoes. Adjust with additional calcium through liming the garden bed to raise the pH. Lowering pH is best done over time through the use of organic mulches and compost. Leaf compost is particularly effective. (You can use this meter to test both pH and moisture levels.) 

  16. How to Fertilize Tomatoes • Step 1: mix the tomato plant fertilizer in with the soil at the bottom on the planting hole. • Step 2: then place some unfertilized soil on top of this before placing the tomato plant into the hole. • Step 3: When fertilizing tomato plants after the fruit have set, first make sure the tomato plant is watered well. If the tomato plant isn’t watered well before being fertilized, it can take up too much fertilizer and burn the plant. • Step 4: After watering, spread the fertilizer on the ground starting approximately 6 inches from the base of the plant. Fertilizing too close to the tomato plant can result in fertilizer running off onto the stem and burning the tomato plant.

  17. Video 

  18. References: • https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/tomato/tomato-fertilizer.htm • http://soilrenewireland.ie/how-it-works/ • https://www.pinterest.com/pin/164099980152549253/ • http://www.fao.org/ag/agp/agpc/doc/publicat/faobul4/faobul4/b401.htm • https://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/fruit-vegetable/nutrient-cycling-and-fertility/ • https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/soil-the-foundation-of-agriculture-84224268

More Related