In a barley trial crop this month, Claire Stevens, Steven's Farm, Kellerberrin, is looking at the best ever crop of barley ever produced the family can recall in a saline-affected paddock.
The MaxSil silicon fertiliser-coated Maximus barley crop was dry sown on May 17 in what has been a dry year.
By July 6, the plants were at a four-leaf tillering stage.
Ms Stevens said the MaxSil treated barley had a lot less disease and more healthy roots.
She said by contrast, a non-treated Maximus plant root structure was a lot smaller.
"The roots have suffered, intolerance, and it's got a lot more disease in it," Ms Stevens said.
"Before sowing when the crop germinated, the seed that was coated had a higher survival rate and a lot bigger and better root growth over this salt scald, which has been very problematic at 20,000 parts per million.
"It's extreme and we did this as a test to see the limiting factor of the products."
Ms Stevens said in the untreated control area, the Maximus barley germinated only half as much and the plants suffered a lot more.
"They don't have half the root growth, nor do they have the disease resistance," she said.
"When we pulled the plants up and looked at them on July 6, you could see seeds that had shot with one nodule or one stem coming up and they had died."
Previous results in 2020 where MaxSil was trialled the difference could still be seen in the paddock compared to the other untreated paddock that was still salt scalded, she said.
