Understanding Suppressive Soils

Associate Professor Pauline Mele, Victorian Department of Primary Industries. Scientists working with the GRDC funded Soil Biology Initiative hope to better understand what makes one soil better able to suppress the damage done to crops from soil borne disease, than other soils. While scientists recognise that healthy soil is better able to suppress disease, they suspect that microbial activity is what gives soils suppressive abilities. How to harness and spread that suppressive ability across a landscape is a major component...