Lentils trials

The aim of this project is to improve the capacity of growers to identify and manage subsurface acidity on the Northern Yorke Peninsula. Soil testing and pH mapping for acidity has become common practice in the district. However, this sampling and mapping has focused on the top 0-10 cm of soil. Recent reports and preliminary work have confirmed an acidic band of soil is often occurring at the 5-15 cm depth and beyond in certain soil types.

There are two main components to this project:

• Spatially identifying subsurface acidity by validating the relationship between soil pH and EC (electrical conductivity).
• Develop best management practices for lime amelioration to manage subsurface acidity.

To assess strategies for reducing pre harvest losses in lentil

To assess fungicide strategies for BGM control

To assess (1) yield loss and grain quality from disease infection in lentil, (2) economics of disease control strategies, (3) disease infection risk under different crop canopies

(1)  Can we exclude IMI application and get same level of BLW control in lentil
(2) Validating improved herbicide strategies to achieve effective control of grass and broadleaf weeds in lentil

To assess the ground cover and legacies of pulses in rotation

To determine how productive and profitable high value pulse crops are on soils that have been ameliorated. Paddock scale demonstration. Possibly with small plot demonstrations of weed control options on ameliorated soils. 

1. Improve herbicide rotation strategy with a focus on reducing selection pressure and dependence on imidazolinone (IMI) herbicides.
2. Compare the level of weed control achieved with low and high inputs of non-IMI herbicides when used at their own or in combination with IMI herbicides.

To demonstrate crop saftey and weed control benefits of Herbicide Tolerant (HT) pulse crop systems (Variety x Herbicide)

Assess the impact of time of rolling on pre-em herbicide safety and weed control

To improve lentil establishment, biomass production and yield by soil amelioration and or lime application on Mallee sands

Assess the response of lentil and lupin to nutrition across variable soil types within a paddock

To assess (1) yield loss from disease infection in lentil, (2) economics of disease control strategies

To assess management options for improving harvestability and/or reducing pod loss in lentil

assess lentil variety production performance in the low rainfall zone

assess lentil variety production performance in the low rainfall zone

To assess the effect of seed size on establishment, yield and yield components

This research aims to trial and demonstrate different management practices which could be used by growers to ameliorate saline soil patches:

1) Amending soil with sand, straw or gypsum - application of amendments to the soil surface can improve crop emergence by reducing evaporation leading to more soil moisture, or by reducing the moisture required to germinate a seed by increasing the sand content of the soil surface. Gypsum was also included to increase the amount of calcium relative to the level of sodium (salt) and address sodicity in the longer-term.  

2) Selecting crop types/varieties – to investigate the differences in crop performance on saline soils between crop types and varieties with improved salt tolerance.

This project aims to demonstrate a range of management strategies for disease complexes as they arise, including plot trials at two locations assessing genetic plant resistance, fungicide and other management strategies in wheat, barley and lentils, and up to four responsive in paddock trials across the subregions, if and where need arises. Trials are aimed to support facilitated discussion and peer to peer learning around key disease management decisions.

Assess novel traits herbicide options for improved weed control

To evaluate fertiliser input strategies for pulse crops growing on unripped and ripped soils

Demonstrate the risk of pre-emergent herbciide use on lentil and faba bean across variable soil types within a paddock

Assess the impact of time of rolling on pre-em herbicide safety

Assess the impact of time of rolling on pre-em herbicide safety

Trial 1: Lime comparison trial 
The use of new pH mapping technologies has increased the awareness and identification of soil acidity in many districts. However, there are several aspects of soil acidity management which remain a problem for growers. This trial aimed to investigate a range of lime and acidity management factors outlined in the three key areas below. 

• Lime source 
• Lime rate and particle size 
• Decline of soil pH from sulphur applications 

Trial 2: Comparison of lime incorporation techniques 

Acidic layers of soil are increasingly being identified in the topsoil (0-10 cm) and subsurface soil (10-30 cm) of no-till farming systems. Stratified low pH soil layers need appropriate lime treatment to maintain and prevent the decline of soil pH further. Surface application of lime alone is unlikely to raise the pH in subsurface layers quickly. Recent work has reported lime movement as little as 1 cm – 2.5 cm per year (Fleming et al. 2020, Burns et al 2017). Given the slow movement of lime, incorporation and mixing of surface applied lime to depth is expected to accelerate the movement of lime.

There are a range of machinery options that can provide different levels of lime incorporation and to different depths, such as cultivation, deep ripping with or without inclusion plates, spading and combinations of these. This trial was designed to investigate which of these are most effective on a sandy soil with stratified soil acidity at Bute.

Assess the response of faba bean and lentil to trace elements cross variable soil types within a paddock

Multiple trials around the theme of improving and quantifying the benefit of pulses to subsequent crops. This will include comparisons of crop types in 2022, followed by cereal crops in 2023, and techniques to increase biomass (early sowing) and increase N fixation (rhizobia studies) 

To determine benefits of various pulses compared to canola on plant available water content, mineral N content, and cereal yield. 

Demonstrate lentil and vetch variety performance across variable soils

To identify the severity of K deficiency in broad-acre crops in respect to the Colwell K level in the top 10 cm of soil.

To understand the effects of stubble, row spacing and row direction on plant growth, grain yield and pod drop of lentil varieties differeing in architecture and tolerance to pod drop.

To assess efficacy of registered fungicides for Ascochyta control

To assess efficacy of registered fungicides for BGM control

(1) Can we exclude IMI applications and get same level of BLW control
(2) Best use of new herbicide Reflex in combination with other herbicides
(3) Benefits from alternative use patterns of metribuzin in new herbicide tolerant technology
(4) Better understand yield comparison of XT lentil and metribuzin tolerant lentil under different sets of weed management scenarios

To measure the affect of deep ripping on the Water Use and WUE of Lentil

To assess strategies for reducing pre harvest losses in lentil

This field trial at Roseworthy was undertaken to investigate factorial combinations of lentil seed rate and herbicides on the management of annual ryegrass.

To demonstrate new technologies to aassist with managing weeds in lentils.

To determine if the risk to frost damage is similar across a range of break crops in a high risk zone. 

To determine if the risk to frost damage is similar across a range of break crops in a moderate risk zone. 

(1)  Can we exclude IMI application and get same level of BLW control in lentil
(2) Validating improved herbicide strategies to achieve effective control of grass and broadleaf weeds in lentil

To assess the ground cover and legacies of pulses in rotation

To determine how productive and profitable high value pulse crops are on soils that have been ameliorated. Paddock scale demonstration. Possibly with small plot demonstrations of weed control options on ameliorated soils. 

Assess the impact of time of rolling on pre-em herbicide safety and weed control

To investigate the stability of the seed size trait in PBA HallmarkXT across generations.

To maximise biomass and plant height in lentil to improve harvestability

To improve lentil establishment, biomass production and yield by soil amelioration on non-wetting Mallee sands

1) Improve herbicide rotation strategies with the focus on reducing selection pressure and dependence on IMI herbicides
2) Compare the level of weed control achieved with low and high inputs of non-IMI herbicides when used at their own or in combination with IMI herbicides, and cost analysis of these practices

To assess (1) yield loss from disease infection in lentil, (2) economics of disease control strategies

To assess (1) yield loss from disease infection in lentil, (2) economics of disease control strategies, (3) disease infection risk under different crop canopies