Reply To: Red Legged Earth Mite

  • Mark Tupman

    Member
    12/06/2024 at 5:29 pm

    Hi Will,

    Yes, the RLEM is definitely making its presence felt around the place atm.

    There is definitely something about healthy plants or plants growing in healthy soil that seems to impart red legged resistance as we commonly see healthy plants untouched while others in not such a good paddock are getting hammered.

    The exact reason for this is still unclear but it is understood that plants with poor photosynthesis/low brix and poor nitrate/ammonium to protien conversion are more susceptible to attack from sap sucking insects.

    There are certain nutrients needed for both these processes to work efficiently I.e. magnesium, iron, manganese, sulphur, molybdenum…

    We can hedge our bets by applying a foliar spray of the nutrients needed along with fulvic acid to improve uptake, molasses for energy etc…

    The recipe that Kate attached fits the bill but make sure to include the following optional extras from the list – molasses, magnesium sulphate, fish hydrolysate and sodium molybdate.

    An application of this sort can be very beneficial and may help you overcome the RLEM problem.