Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

Production of berries is highly dependent on appropriate soil preparation and fertility management. A keyx000D
component of understanding optimal fertilization practices is determining their impacts on soil microbialx000D
communities and overall soil health. This is because soil microbial communities can directly influence cropx000D
performance, and their abundance and diversity can vary in response to fertilization treatments. We arex000D
requesting research funds for the proposed ENGAGE research project and to support the establishment of ax000D
research collaboration with the industry partner, Sky Blue Horticulture Ltd. (SBH). The proposed ENGAGEx000D
project will add value to current field-based blueberry fertilization research conducted by SBH by overlayingx000D
soil microbial community data on plant performance and crop quality data. The proposed research project willx000D
determine the influence of four different alternative fertilization treatments (high phosphorus fertilizerx000D
[10-34-0], phosphites, humic acids and marine kelp extract) on soil microbial community composition (totalx000D
biomass and relative biomass of different taxonomic groups) and relate those metrics to plant performancex000D
data. Understanding microbial abundance and diversity in response to these fertility practices will lead tox000D
development of applied horticultural recommendations for improved fruit yield and quality. Fosteringx000D
beneficial soil microbial communities will increase nutrient use efficiency, reducing the need for chemicalx000D
fertilizer inputs, improving environmental sustainability and decreasing cost of production for growers.