Harnessing Nature's Science™
By Mojtaba Zaifnejad, Ph.D.
Sr. Director of Field Research and Technical Services,
Huma, Inc.
In my previous article on nematodes, I described the general topic of nonparasitic and parasitic nematodes. In this segment the focus will be on a specific plant parasitic nematode – Reniform nematodes (Rotylenchulus reniformis). We will delve into the intriguing world of reniform nematodes, exploring their feeding behavior, impact on crops, and effective management strategies. [Read more…]
By Mojtaba Zaifnejad, Ph.D.
Sr. Director of Field Research and Technical Services,
Bio Huma Netics, Inc.
During field visits, I often come across people who ask – what exactly are nematodes? More often than not, many of them associate nematodes with everything bad that happens to their crops. Is this true? We’ll get into that too, but first, what exactly are nematodes?
Nematodes are invertebrate worms that have been around for about a billion years. Some of them are beneficial, while others are parasitic or neutral. They are typically vermiform or “worm-shaped,” but some species swell to become sphere-shaped in later life stages and do not resemble typical worms. Nematodes may also vary in size—some are 26 feet long and one inch wide, and some are tiny (250 um long and 15 um wide). A shovel of soil can contain millions of nematodes. [Read more…]
A recent field trial on green chile peppers has concluded that Promax® and Zap® treatment is noticeably effective in lowering the parasitic nematode population while improving the beneficial microbe population. This positive effect on the soil biology boosted the yield of green chile peppers and resulted in an increased profit for the farmer.
We love to hear stories from the people who use our products, and a number of those stories are included in this issue of The Solution. We begin with a report from Holden Research and Consulting on how use of certain Huma Gro® products on strawberries led to an ROI of over $3,400/acre. Amazing! Equally amazing is a report from Plant Sciences showing how effective Promax® is at controlling 8 strawberry pathogens. It seems that Huma Gro® and strawberries have an affinity for each other.
In our Probiotic Solutions® section we report on a case study involving a small town in New Mexico that was in need of reducing the sludge in its wastewater treatment system lagoon in order to meet state requirements. After 300 days of using Bio Energizer®, sludge was reduced to the point where the town had regained capacity to better handle the incoming flow and meet its permit requirements without dredging.
On the back page we share some videos out of Colombia, South America, from postings to the Huma Gro® groups on WhatsApp. Any story that involves a mule has got to be interesting, and the video showing hand foliar application of Breakout® on rice from San Jacinto del Cauca does not disappoint.
We also announce new Huma Gro® catalogs in English and Spanish, an updated Huma Gro® Turf catalog, and the launching of a Spanish version of our Huma Gro® blog at https://humagro.com/category/espanol/: We hope to use this blog to bring even more people into the Huma Gro® conversation.