The Underground

The recent extremely hot weather most of Australia has been experiencing lately has potential consequences for water bodies such as lakes and farm dams. This became evident in a call to us from the Sydney Adventist Hospital, which noticed a stench coming from a stormwater settlement pond in its grounds.

In NSW, the Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) administers the legislation that is enacted to protect our environment. Water quality is a critical component of our environment, encompassing:

In Australia’s new, even drier climate, recycled water has become a valuable resource. Opportunities exist for wastewater producers and water users to benefit from each other. If testing shows that effluent is suitable for irrigation, it could provide a year-round, reliable source of both water and nutrients for plants. Growers get vital water, and wastewater producers can dispose of it […]

Do you know how much of the fertiliser you apply to your turf ends up running off? Or to put it another way, how much money you throw away when that fertiliser ends up going down the drain (literally)?

Human health depends on food quality. Food quality, in turn, depends on plant nutrition. In particular, plant nutrition determines the contents of protein, vitamins and minerals.

New book SESL Australia’s clients in the floriculture and horticulture business will be interested in this new 200-page guide to cut flowers. The book has been written by Delwyn Thomas, a leading floriculture teacher, florist and horticulturist, and SESL Australia’s friend Bettina Gollnow, a former development officer (floriculture) with NSW Primary Industries.

  Newton got there before Pink Floyd. Source: Wikipedia; used under Creative Commons licence. The ancient Romans recognised that a prism could generate a rainbow. But it took Sir Isaac Newton to recognise in a series of experiments in 1666–1672 that the prism doesn’t create colours, but rather splits white light into its components.

We recently had an interesting enquiry from a customer, when their red wine turned blue!

As we saw in our first article in this series (Moisture retention and CEC in sandy soils), there can be good reasons for establishing turf or crops on sandy soil, but sandy soil has virtually no capacity to hold nutrients, which end up polluting groundwater and have to be replaced frequently.

Roots are seldom seen and easy to forget, but they are an essential part of plants. Maintaining a healthy root system is essential for healthy plants, especially when conditions are not ideal. Meeting the needs of roots in crop management programs will help maintain plant health and performance.