Healthy Lettuce Starts With Soil Biodiversity

When growers are focused on getting their lettuce planted and deciding on important items such as fertilizers and watering routines, it is important for the overall soil health to be part of that equation. Ignoring the wellbeing of acreage is a practice that can have negative short- and long-term consequences.

In the short term, cultivating “tired” fields results in harvests that often fail to meet expectations. And in the long term, failing to address soil health can lead to fields no longer being able to sustain robust crops. In contrast, taking steps to ensure that your soil has a healthy microorganism ecosystem can help it produce higher quantities of more marketable lettuce heads that impress wholesalers and retailers, and make consumers happy.

What’s the key to improving the condition of your soil, both from the perspective of biological composition and structure? Many growers are finding that a microalgae-based soil amendment can kickstart a biological cycle that improves nutrient availability and the formation of soil aggregates that increase the soil’s water-holding capacity.

Studies have shown that microalgae in particular are a powerful catalyst for positive change. Introducing microalgae into fields helps plants obtain the nutrients and moisture they need to thrive. Healthy soil also has greater drought resistance, which means more crops make it to marketable harvest.

Heliae^® Agriculture is a leader in the area of soil health, and its innovative PhycoTerra^® microalgae-based soil amendment was found to improve head lettuce yield by 71 cartons/acre above grower standard in a Salinas, California, field trial. That’s a return on investment (ROI) of 10:1 on the yield increase alone. Plus, PhycoTerra^® and PhycoTerra^® Organic soil amendments also reduce salt stress on leafy greens.

The company is so confident that its products will produce the same positive results in your fields—especially those where organic matter is low, abiotic stress are high, and crops aren’t meeting expectations—that it offers a performance guarantee. All you have to do is sign up for the program, use the product on some fields while leaving others as the untreated “control,” and compare yield and quality results at harvest time. If there isn’t a noticeable difference, Heliae^® Agriculture will gladly refund the purchase price for enrolled acres up to the suggested retail price.

To learn more about Heliae^® Agriculture, PhycoTerra^®, and how to produce higher quantities of robust lettuce, please visit phycoterra.com/lettuce or call (800) 998-6536.