Drought threatens

The assessment of the value of mulch in a vineyard is still a work in progress. Canes, when burned, are removed from the vineyard first. The ash isn't returned. In general, organic material holds water, and encourages a diverse soil ecology. The diversity of the ecology in turn will block pathogenic microbes. Vineyards do encourage wild mustard to grow in the vineyard before bud break, but then the mustard is controlled with Roundup, and the vineyards are basically bare dirt most of the year. Whether this is just inertia, or whether it is considered best practices, I don't know. Is the financial savings of using gylphosate sufficient to over come its drawbacks as listed by Dr. Don Huber, recently retired from Purdue University, i.e.

1) Glyphosate binds with and inactivates EPSPS, the critical enzyme in the shikimate pathway required for the synthesis of aromatic plant metabolites including essential amino acids phenylalanine, tryptophan and tyrosine, as well as downstream products such as plant growth promoter, indoylacetic acid and plant defence compounds, phytoalexins. But glyphosate has multiple adverse effects that act synergistically on crop health and productivity that extends well beyond the plant into the soil ecosystem and the wider environment. 2) The Glyphosate Tolerant (GT) trait depends on incorporating an EPSPS from the soil bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens that is insensitive to glyphosate, hence glyphosate is taken up by GT plants and translocated to the growing parts of roots and shoots, and even exuded into the rhizosphere (soil surrounding the roots) so it can affect the soil community of microorganisms and also subsequent crops planted in the soil. 3) Glyphosate stimulates the growth of fungi and enhances the virulence of pathogens such as Fusarium, and can have serious consequences for sustainable production of a wide range of susceptible crops. They warn that Ignoring potential non-target detrimental side effects of any chemical, especially used as heavily as glyphosate, may have dire consequences for agriculture such as rendering soils infertile, crops non-productive, and plants less nutritious. 4) In an interview [5] with the Organic & Non-GMO Report, Huber said he has been researching glyphosate for 20 years, and began noticing problems when he saw a consistent increase in take-all, a fungal disease of wheat, when glyphosate had been applied in a previous year to control weeds. He found glyphosate reduced manganese in plants, which is essential to many plant defence reactions against disease and environmental stress. Glyphosate can immobilize plant nutrients such as manganese, copper, potassium iron, magnesium, calcium, and zinc, so they are no longer nutritionally functional. Basically, glyphosate completely weakens the plant, making it susceptible to soil-borne fungal pathogens. That is one reason why we see an increase in plant diseases, he said. 5) There has been a general increase in the number of plant diseases in the past 15 to 18 years. Four primary soil fungi, Fusarium, Phythium, Rhizoccccctonia, and Phytophthora, have become more active with the use of glyphosate; and concomitantly, diseases caused by these fungi have increased, such as head scab in corn, or root rot in soybeans, crown rot in sugar beets. Fusarium head blight, which affects cereal crops, is a disease that produces a mycotoxin that could enter the food chain.

There are more than 40 diseases reported with the use of glyphosate, and the number keeps growing as people recognize the association, Huber said.

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In conversation, I have found that there is some concern about the effects of Roundup on the soil ecology.

I realize that this is ranging far from the subject of drought, and I'll try to bring it back home.

In the meantime I've been expecting Farm1 to take me to task for my last comments about organic material in the ground, and trees to fight drought. I'm sure she has considered them, and what efforts she has made in this direction, or why not.

You out there Farm1?

Anyone, anyone?

Reply to
Billy
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I'm thinking of tobacco mosaic virus, but that would be direct contact, normally insects such as aphids and leaf hoppers.

Reply to
Billy

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