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MICROBE- LIFT Technology Speeds the Breakdown of Plant Litter at a Guatemalan Banana Plantation - Case Study
Location: Banana Plantation, Guatemala
Background: Typical of most banana plantations, this operation left plant litter such as leaves and stalks on the floor of the banana stand in order to decompose and return nutrients to the soil to support new growth. However, it takes significant time for this litter to decompose or "compost" slowing the availability of needed nutrients.
Objective:
Additional processing of the litter such as mechanical grinding to speed its breakdown was simply not cost effective, however, management considered the slow recovery of nutrients to be a limiting factor in the efficient growth of new crops.
While this was not a typical compost process, a program was developed to assess the ability of MICROBE-LIFT® core technology, to speed the breakdown of this litter. Based on the experimental design, MICROBE-LIFT® was applied at recommended dosage through the central irrigation system.
