Northern Territory Mangoes thrive with Guano Gold

Guano Gold proving to assist sandy soils in the Northern Territory, with phosphorus, calcium and silica level improvements.

Katherine mango grower Ian Golding needed help with a particular growing problem, so he turned to Guano Australia.

“We are one of the few areas with highly alkaline soils, which means more tie-up of micronutrients and a poor uptake of phosphorus”, he said.

“I was using soft rock phosphate but was seeing no real improvement in the phosphorus levels in the soil”.

“John Jashar said there had been a good response in other regions, so I decided to give it a go”.

“Our soil is well balanced but very low in organic matter; there is only about 0.6%. This means that the nutrient holding capacity of this light, sandy soil is extremely low”.

“What I wanted was to balance the soil and increase the nutrient level but, despite mulching, the lack of organic matter made it much harder and slower to kick-start the microbes”.

The key foundational minerals in any fertility program that need to be available in the correct levels are calcium, phosphorus and silica.

The soil analysis report indicated that an application rate of elemental phosphorus it would need a minimum of 500 kg/ha Guano Gold applied to raise the levels in the soils.

“I applied 500 kg/ha Guano Gold with other microbes and in 3 months the amount of available phosphorus increased from 25 ppm to 65 ppm”.

Moreover, these levels were maintained, through the ongoing feeding program of soils microbes. Particularly attention was made with the nutrition program to ensure a fungal dominant soil; so important in all tree crops, which is vital in releasing much of the phosphorus that is not readily available for high quality fruit production.

I was able to harvest the next three crops of mangoes after this single Guano Gold application before the levels started to fall below the desired level of 60 ppm available phosphorus.

“I was pretty happy with that”.

WHAT OUR CUSTOMERS SAY

Being so far away from our markets, durability is critical and the Silica is really good in terms of hardening up the skin and making the melons better to transport.Ord River WA irrigator David Menzel-Barradale

The problem with many organic fertilisers is that they have very low rates of nutrients, meaning you need to put out high rates. A product like Guano Gold has 12pc P, whereas Guano Sulphur Gold has 10.5pc P, obviously with additional sulphur. These figures compare very favourably with something like a single superphosphate product. Agronomically, it’s a good product in any setting, not just for organic producers.Garry Allison, Landmark Agronomist. Mount Gambier, SA

For the broadacre croppers, Guano Gold works really well in paddocks where they have had issues with nutrient tie-up. He said the majority of synthetic P products have large rates of water soluble P. The problem with that is that you can have instances where it ends up tying up zinc in the soil so you run into problems with zinc deficiencies. Not only does the slow release nature of the Guano Gold product work well over the entire season, it also contains zinc for the crop as well as the other nutrients.Moree agronomist Rob Drewitt

We strongly recommend the Guano Gold products to fellow farmers if they are looking at improving their Calcium and Silica levels using various methods of application such as foliar and granular.James and Aimee Thomas Falkirk Macadamia Farm

I have recommended Guano Gold products for 20 years and in all cases had excellent long-term results increasing in pasture productivity.Paul Baguely - PB Ag Consulting

They are high analysis products so you get your nutrients without having to put too much fertiliser out.Anthony Beutel, Googa Farm Organics

We have known since the 1930s that phosphorus is one of the main elements required to grow a successful crop of not just the (flax) plant but the seed. It was one of those products that was first out in a granular type form and it was so much easier to get an even coverage over the ground, rather than a powder form. Later on the product became a little more refined, so we could put it through our air-seeder. We also broadcast some of it, prior to seeding, when we are cultivating ground. The products have great characteristics in relation to phosphate and silica, which is exactly what we need for flax.Waltanna Farms flax-seed farmer & Ambassador for Guano Australia, Michael Nagorcka

Northern Territory Mangoes thrive with Guano Gold

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WHAT OUR CUSTOMERS SAY