It is probably fair to say it's been quite windy since we last spoke. With that has come some storms and hail. The storms have generated some additional dryland plantings; however our first waterings have been brought forward on account of poor infiltration from those storms. What went down our way last year is not the same right now.  

This is the time of the year when we should be most active with our shovels. My first question is, how are our seed beds drying back? As I’m digging in syphon irrigated fields, I notice that the hills have dried back considerably. The tap root is heading into the unknown while the lateral roots are high and dry. This has consequences for accessing your pre-plant fertiliser program - one could maybe describe this as being stratified. This pool of nutrition in dry soil is locked up with little mineralisation occurring. We need to consider this coming into flowering. That first watering will need to come forward so plants are able to access what has been applied as it becomes available. Those watering with bankless systems will be monitoring things differently, as there potentially will be issues with soil structure from redeveloping the country. Growers with overhead irrigation will have more control over water needs, while not wanting to drop soil temperatures.  

When digging through the soil, I reflect on what I am seeing inside the seed beds this year. We have had a very strong start in regard to heat units, however10-20 % of our plant stands have not been able to capitalise on this. At imbibement, the pending seedlings are striking poorly broken-down crop residues. How to deal with past crop remnants when turning fields around is problematic. Stalks and root balls sitting high up in a hill with little or no moisture, along with some organic matter to feed the bugs can create establishment issues down the track. Consider the practices undertaken as to how we can improve this for coming seasons. Some ideas that come to mind include mulching the past crop and not just cutting it down or side busting rather than center busting and leaving the root in the ground. We know fusarium breaks down better by solarising. To assist in breaking the verticillium bridge, suggested best practice is burying the trash. That’s all well and good if you are not generating enough good bugs to eat out the bad bugs. Let’s explore this deeper when we all convene at various planned activities over summer.  

Moving on with help from CSD’s Laboratory Manager, Hanna Hartnett, I wished to delve deeper into what happens to planting seed that’s retained from one year to the next. Hannah’s graph below represents seed vigour, as measured by cool germination percentage, of seed from the same AusLOT, after being carried over for a single season by a range of growers (the AusLOT was produced in 2024 and these are the 2025 carry-over sample results from a range of submitted grower samples).  As you can see there is a wide range in cool germination (22-88%) between samples after just one year in storage, under varying on-farm storage conditions.  Warm germination will also decline over time, but vigour drops first, hence why I used cool germination results for the demonstration. 

Table 1: Cool germination results from 2025 for five submitted carry-over samples of the same 2024 AusLOT.  

Regardless of the year, seed being a living organism requires some thought as to how to best retain its unique properties. The CSD website retains a document that assists with best practise regarding to ongoing seed storage management. 

As we all head into the busiest time of the year, keep your diaries full of notes on what’s happening around watering - i.e. timings etc. If your water is coming through to fast, we need to consider that later on into January with irrigation. More on that next time. Have a great Xmas.  

- Colin 

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