Photo of the week: anthracnose and potassium

Charles Schmid and colleagues at Rutgers University have shown that low levels of soil potassium can increase anthracnose severity. For those of you reducing fertilizer inputs using the Minimum Levels of Sustainable Nutrition (MLSN) guidelines, this finding may cause some concern. However, Schmid's data shows that the MLSN soil potassium guideline of 35 ppm is sufficient for avoiding increased anthracnose damage. For more information on potassium and sustainability, check out this 10 minute podcast, "Control the K" from Dr. Micah…