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Friday, 5 January 2024

Fertilisers in the Landscape

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Friday, 5 January 2024

Fertilisers in the Landscape

A discussion on using a wholelandscape approach to soil fertility. Harnessing the relationships and interactions between trees and crops can help manage organic nitrogen more efficiently, growers can use ‘mobile’ green manures, by harvesting nitrogenrich leaf matter from elsewhere and applying it to cropland in a targeted manner. Much like the fertility-building clovers and vetches long-used by farmers, nitrogen fixing trees and shrubs such as alder and gorse work with bacteria in the soil to convert nitrogen into a form useful to plants. They can be grown in biodiverse areas of coppice woodland and perennial plantings. These fertiliserproducing areas can be situated on less productive areas of farms such as steep slopes or boggy ground. They will also serve as biodiversity reserves and build up carbon stores in roots and soil.