Victorian potato growers and industry members dig into crop nutrition at Ballarat workshop
In August 2025, potato growers, agronomists and industry members came together in Ballarat, Victoria for a PotatoLink event focused on crop nutrition, to achieve healthy potato crops, yield improvements, and input efficiency.
PotatoLink’s Victorian regional representative, Stuart Grigg facilitated the session, and introduced some key fundamentals of effective nutrition. Key highlights included the relationship between soil pH and nutrient availability, as well as local nutrition challenges facing potato growers. He also shared results from the recent PotatoLink demonstration site at Dean, VIC.
Phil Hoult from Incitec Pivot Fertilisers expanded on these foundations, presenting on how to implement nutrition principles on-farm. He discussed the role and timing of key macro and micronutrients, particularly phosphorus, nitrogen, calcium, magnesium, boron, zinc and copper. With a spotlight on improving Nitrogen use efficiency. Seasonal and local considerations were also explored, such as soil moisture, temperature, and soil type.
Growers also heard from Darren Hicks (AgVita Analytical), who highlighted the importance of monitoring crop nutrition through soil and sap testing. His session covered how, why, and when to use testing to make better informed management decisions on-farm.
A panel session with panellists Phil Hoult, Darren Hicks, and David Ryan (McCain), brought together the learnings from the event and how the insights can be applied on farm. It gave participants the opportunity to explore relevant topics of interest in more depth, with the diverse and experienced panellists. Areas of interest included the relationship between Nitrogen and tuber set, nutrition and disease interactions, phosphorus efficiencies, and use of lime in the cropping rotation.
A biosecurity update from Zarmeen Hassan (AUSVEG) communicated the latest information about the Potato mop-top virus detection in Tasmania. For the most up-to-date information, please refer to the official Biosecurity Tasmania updates:
Biosecurity Advisory: https://biosecurityadvisory.nre.tas.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx
Biosecurity Alert: https://nre.tas.gov.au/biosecurity-tasmania/current-biosecurity-alerts
AUSVEG PMTV webinar: https://potatolink.com.au/resources/ausveg-potato-mop-top-virus-industry-webinar
PotatoLink’s Steph Tabone helped to coordinate the event and connected with growers and other attendees.
“It was fantastic to see such strong attendance at the event, and interest and engagement of participants to optimise nutrition in potatoes. A key message from the presenters was 'measure to manage', using soil and plant testing to inform decision making.”
The PotatoLink team would like to thank Phil Hoult, Darren Hicks, David Ryan and Zarmeen Hassan for presenting at the event, PotatoLink regional representative Stuart Grigg for his facilitation, and Potatoes Australia and AuSPICA for allowing co-ordinated delivery of the event with their Annual General Meetings. Thank you also to the growers, agronomists and industry members for their attendance and engagement.