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Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@bellsouth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] (fwd) Fusarium in ginger and rotation with sudangrass
  • Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2012 13:36:39 -0400


Interestng observation on the disastrous effects of chemical fertilizer
& pesticide oriented conventional agriculture on life in the soil and
associated health of plants. This post is from Elaine Ingham, on the
front line of natural agriculture practice.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] fusarium in ginger and rotation with sudangrass
Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2012 09:28:03 -0700
From: soilfoodweb@aol.com <soilfoodweb@AOL.COM>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

If you go back to pre-1950's chemical ag, you find that Fusarium was not
considered a fungus that could cause disease. Not until soil life was so badly harmed by toxic chemical applications that most beneficial
fungi-----and I am not talking about just mycorrhizal fungi here----were killed in our ag soils, did Fusarium become considered to be a pathogen. This strongly suggests that addition of the full food web back into the soil might be the
solution to your problem.

Connected by DROID on Verizon Wireless

-----Original message-----
From: Hector Valenzuela <hectoruh11@GMAIL.COM>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
Sent: Wed, Jul 18, 2012 00:37:37 GMT+00:00
Subject: [SANET-MG] fusarium in ginger and rotation with sudangrass

Hi all,

Is anyone familiar with sudangrass possibly increasing soil populations of Fusarium, when included as part of a rotation program?

An organic farmer here in Hawaii, is growing ginger, and has observed
increased Fusarium problems (*Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. zingiberi) when
rotating with sudangrass. His practice has been to harvest ginger in about March, to plant a cover crop of sudangrass, followed by two cover crops of sunnhemp.*

I've seen two citations showing increased Fusarium soil levels following sudangrass, but wonder if you have any personal experience.*

If the farm and fields are already infected with Fusarium, one would
indeed expect the levels to increase gradually over the years, even with 2 year rotations, but we are wondering whether a sudan grass cover crop, is a) helping to reduce, b) has no impact; or c) is actually exacerbating the problem.*

Any suggestions about any other possible rotational alternatives?*

The farm is located in a general dry area (1000 mm/yr), and has been
applying bone meal as a nutrient amendment.*

Thank-you for any ideas or leads.*

Hector
Univ. of Hawaii at Manoa*





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