Well, to quote an old Barry Manilow song, “It looks like we made it.” However, we didn’t lose each other on the way. We’re in this together. As the chairman of American Pistachio Growers, a CCA, a SSp., a grower, a hopeful amateur political contributor and an all-in supporter of all things ag, I can honestly say the road looks better than it did a month ago. Prices seem to be ticking up for most of our specialty crops and federal support for California water is at a more positive level than it’s been for decades. Let’s keep this train on the tracks and plan for 2025.
A weak La Niña seems to be set up in the Pacific. Typically, we can expect a colder winter with less atmospheric moisture. At Ultra Gro, we had a meeting recently with Plant Pathologist, Owner of Denele Analytical Labs and amateur meteorologist Joe Mullinax, Ph.D. He reminded us some of our wettest winters were weak La Niña events. Like a typical weather analysis, we don’t really know what to expect. We did receive some moisture in November, but the future remains anyone’s guess. If it is dry, we need to prepare to keep our soil active.
William Albrecht had some divine intervention moments in his illustrious career as a scientist. Moisture levels at 25%, air at 25%, minerals at 45%, humus at 5% and 68 degrees F for optimal soil performance is still recognized as the norm some 80 years later. Keeping soil moisture levels at 25% can be difficult during the winter. Significant rain, or lack thereof, can throw that way out of whack. Getting our SW soils to even 1% organic matter can have its own challenges. No matter how many minerals you have, 45% or not, if they don’t solubilize, they aren’t as effective. We need to make it all work well together.
Soil microbiology does just that. Prebiotics, probiotics, carbon sources, plant extractions, mixed species, etc. can all contribute to making all that work. At Ultra Gro, we have brewed our own microbiology that has gone out with our fertility and carbon sources for 40 years. I mention this because for much of that time, those types of formulations were considered the proverbial “snake oil” when they first came out. Now, almost every fertility company has some form of biological inoculation or byproduct to make macronutrition and micronutrition more effective. That microbiology can aggregate soil and increase pore space. That gets the air component of soil closer to that 25%.
Increasing the soil organic matter by just 1% can increase the soil water holding capacity by 20,000 gallons. If soil weighs about 2,000,000 pounds per acre for every 6 inches, that sounds like 20,000 pounds to me. I have several growers that apply 3 to 6 tons of compost per year to their soil. 6000 to 12,000 pounds of compost can add to the soil carbon significantly year over year. When we plant cover crops and see that lush green growth in the spring, a good stand can add 14 tons of green manure to the soil. Again, building soil carbon. Throw some in-season humic substances and carbohydrate sources with our fertility every year and we feed the soil biology as well. That will stabilize the soil carbon. As we apply fertility, root exudates and the roots themselves add more carbon to the soil. Carbon chains are amazing chelators, keeping more nutrition in the root zone for later use and assimilation.
In-season fertility applied in soluble and plant-ready sources can dramatically increase our uptake of key nutrients. Having a thriving soil microbiome can take that to the next level. Taking soil samples next spring, we can formulate a plan to make our soil more beneficial to our crops with proper supplementation. The acetate extraction numbers on our tests were designed to give us an educated guess as to what should solubilize in-season from our soil. That’s not the total load of the soil and what it contains. Even at 1000 ppm Calcium, 2000 calculated pounds of calcium in the first 6 inches of the soil would make one assume we will never be short of calcium or need to apply any. Yet we do. But it also tells me that it will always be difficult to get proper phosphorus into our trees. Soil microbiology can help hedge that bet that a plant can use the forms transformed by their digestion. Soil biology will also help acidify the rhizosphere and enhance that soil-root interface and nutrient exchange.
Hedge your bet. Do everything in your power to grow that soil microbiome. Add active biology. Add prebiotics that will help exacerbate that process. Add more carbon sources in multiple forms. Use soluble, plant-ready nutrients to get more of what you put on your crops into your crops. When winter starts slow and you can add water, keep the soil moisture content adequate. Allow that active soil to aggregate itself and allow for more infiltration and sodium leaching. It was another long season, but keep at it through the winter to make next spring’s bloom that much more effective. As soils warm up, with more plant-ready nutrition now available and stable, we’ll allow those trees to reach optimal performance no matter what Mother Nature throws at us.
