When Free Really Isn't

Something that I find interesting is the fact that some farmers still believe that soil sampling, tissue sampling, and crop monitoring is a “free service” provided by their supplier. The farmer may receive an invoice for the samples but the time involved is considered a cost of doing business by the supplier. This is really not the case because the cost of the employee sampling, his insurance, fuel, and postage will be covered by the gross margin the dealer makes on the products he sells to the grower. This is all well and good if the person doing the sampling as well as the person making the recommendations, is qualified. It is widely known that the errors in soil sample results are not made in the lab but are made at the time of sampling. The recommendations that the farmer receives are only as good as the sample that was taken. That goes for both soil and tissue samples.

Ag Tech Services, LLC, will do your sampling at a fee that ensures you will get the best of our 36 years of experience. Yes we will charge for both sampling and recommendations but the data belongs to the grower and he can take it wherever he wants to for supplies.

This makes more sense than to expect these services for free. Everything has a cost and sometimes the least expensive may cost the most.



Great Time in Arizona

This time of the year in Western Washington can be very wet and dreary looking. Clouds that you see in the morning follow you all day long, tuck you in at bedtime, and greet you again in the morning. Day after day! So going to Arizona for the 2012 International Meeting presented by BioHumaNetics, Inc., had a two-fold benefit—Brian and I learned a lot and we got warm at the same time.

The difference between BHN’s liquid fertilizers and others in the industry is their Micro Carbon Technology (MCT) which is the base of all of their products. Plants produce their own carbon but often the amount they produce is inhibited by herbicides or naturally occurring stress. The MCT of the BHN products acts as a booster when the plants are under stress. We look at a crop a few days after a BHN application and can see the MCT effect. Plants are greener and healthier looking. The greater the stress, the larger the positive response. Good Stuff.

All in all, we learned a lot, got warmed up, and returned to our families safe and sound. And today is rainy.

A Weekend in LaConner

It is no big secret that a lot of people go to La Conner to get away for a weekend. We spent a weekend recently in La Conner for the same reason—we wanted to get away from home and the home office to do some planning. So off we went, Celine, Brian and I to do some talking and planning for the 2013 business year. We discussed what went right and what went wrong with nothing left unturned. All topics held the same amount of importance because at the end of the day our decisions were for the company and the company is for our clients.

For me, the sights and sounds of the boats coming and going on the channel were very distracting. Fortunately, Celine knew that and threatened to pull the blinds so my focus could be maintained. We had a timer going to make sure we had a break every hour and a half and it was needed. There were treats to keep us going as the day wore on. Then at the end of the day we met Sarah and Brian for dinner. Not only was it the perfect way to end a day of brainstorming but we were feeling good because we knew that as a team we were looking down the same gun barrel toward the future.

I would suggest such a getaway for any management team, it provides an opportunity to open up and put new ideas on the table. Whether you are a business owner like I am, a farmer with management personnel, or a supplier with a management team, get away from the office, tune out the outside distractions, and let the ideas fly. Try it, you'll like it!

Kitchen Table and Rainy Days

We are a small business consisting of three people with lots of ideas. To put all those ideas into some form of direction takes planning. That is what we did two days in November and December. The kitchen table was just the right size for three people, papers, note pads and beverages.

It is amazing how a small business can come up with so many ideas. We focused mostly on sales and products. However we also shifted into the abstract: what is the plan if a key person dies or becomes incapacitated? This is not unlike the decisions farmers have to make from time to time.

I think the most invigorating feeling that I got from this round table meeting was the need to go forward. We want to get better at what we do. We want to focus on the ag market and the turf market bringing to both the best information, knowledge, and products that we can find to help our customers move forward with success. Yup it was a good day around the kitchen table and we look forward to implementing our ideas in the year ahead.

Rhizosphere Interactions

OK so you have had soil tests pulled, and fertilized accordingly to prepare for planting. Your background or bulk soil nutrition is where you need it to have a successful crop – weather permitting. You saved money and time by only using the type and amount of fertilizer needed.
So why do some crops fail to establish themselves and take off with vigorous growth? This question has many answers we hear all of the time but don’t pay much attention to. Solubility, availability, nutrient mobility in the soil, and the health and activity of the microbial populations in the soil are a few pieces of the puzzle.

We need to look specifically at the roots and the soil around and near the root zone also called the rhizosphere. This area of soil to root contact is where the action is.

Let’s look at solubility, availability, and we can’t forget the resource that is always running short - TIME. It takes time for that pre-plant fertilizer to dissolve into the soil solution and wind up in the right form for uptake by the crop. If the microbial populations in the soil are not diverse enough it could take even more time to access those nutrients. If it is cold and dry it could take even longer!

I would like to use phosphate as an example and I won’t dwell too long on the pH connection to phosphate availability. I will just mention that phosphate availability is more drastically reduced at the following pH values: pH 3-4 when it likes to tie up with iron, pH 5-6 when plentiful aluminum is the problem, and pH 7-8 when calcium can get in the way. Phosphate exists in two forms – orthophosphate and polyphosphate. Plants take up the orthophosphate ion and it takes time for the polyphosphate to convert to orthophosphate. It can take up to 30 days to convert only half of a polyphosphate fertilizer to orthophosphate. What’s my point? Despite your commendable soil testing and responsible fertilization – there can be gaps in nutrient availability that can lower yields and quality.

Avoid nutrient availability gaps. Use starter fertilizers with highly available nutrients placed in and near the root zone or where the roots will be very soon.

Your crop is not just sitting there idly waiting for the good stuff to come to it. Those plants can help themselves to an extent. Plant roots are like two-way streets. Water and nutrients are headed in, and organic acids, carbohydrates, and enzymes are leaking out. These outbound substances help acidify the soil zone directly surrounding the roots, dissolving nutrients, and providing sustenance for the microbial community which will continue to make even more nutrients available.

Years of farming practices can drastically alter the microbial health of your soil. Use a biological supplement with known beneficial organisms in it. Choose products that specify the organisms, population numbers, and proposed benefits.

The scientific literature is full of support for maintaining a thriving and diverse microbial community in the soil. Some benefits include disease suppression, increased mycorrhizal colonization and attachment to roots, and faster nutrient solubilization.

Let’s see how we’re doing… soil test – check, responsible fertilization – check, starter fertilizer – check, biological support – check. Looks good, but just like your crops roots, now is not the time to sit idly by and wait.

Monitor your crop and use plant and tissue sampling to see if things are headed in the right direction. When the reports come back from the lab, be prepared to take action. If there are nutrient deficiencies that will reduce yield or quality it is not too late. There are fast acting and highly available foliar nutrition products that can alleviate the deficiency.

Believe it or not, this practice of making foliar adjustments can make a big difference. In addition to supplying the plant with what it is lacking, foliar fertilization can increase the production of those desirable root exudates we discussed earlier. Choose foliar products with a small molecular weight carbon based carrier like the aromatic acids. Carbon is unique in its ability to bond with positively charged nutrient cations and negatively charged nutrient anions.

Anonymous quote from a crop adviser somewhere…

“All I ask is that you fertilize according to soil test recommendations, follow with starter fertilizers and biological support at planting, and make foliar adjustments according to tissue/plant samples."

These individual practices can seem too simple to make a difference, but when used as part of a combined program the results can be quite positive. These are some of the steps we use at Ag Tech Services, LLC to routinely boost spinach seed production here in the valley to quantities well above what the seed companies think a given variety can produce, and to push fresh market potato yields and quality to the next level.

Why spend money on soil samples?

Applying fertilizer to a crop without first pulling a soil sample is a tremendous waste of time and money. You are not saving money by not soil sampling. In fact you can be wasting a great deal of money if you use the wrong amount of the right fertilizer or any amount of the wrong fertilizer. Believe me, nobody can look at the soil surface and tell what your crop needs.

For those of you who do sample, I would remind you to pay for a full analysis, not a partial. Some people think that if they test for just pH, nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus they will be covered. It is not that simple. More times than not a crop will respond to one of the minor nutrients more than the major ones. So don’t be cheap; buy the complete sample not a partial.

With the high cost of fertilizer it just makes good common sense to do a complete sample every year. If you don’t understand what all the numbers mean, contact a professional agronomist for help. The few dollars you may pay for help can easily save you thousands.

Maturing Potatoes in Western Washington

Why is it so hard to get skin set on a potato in Western Washington? This is a question that has confounded growers for years. So many times they just shrug it off by saying it’s the weather and you can’t change the weather. This is partially correct but let me explain the whole process and how you can change it.

Like all plants, potatoes are driven by five hormones. These are Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), cytokinin (Cyt), gibberellic acid (GA), ethylene (ET), and absisic acid (ABA). The first three, IAA, Cyt, and GA are considered to be growth hormones while ET and ABA are considered to be stress and maturation hormones. The growth hormones are dominant at the stage of growth from seed germination, or sprout development, to seedling stage up to vegetative stage. All three of these hormones will be dominant at one time or another through bulking up to maturation. Prior to maturation, a hormone shift from IAA, Cyt, and GA over to ET and ABA must take place in order for the potato to be mature and the skins set at harvest.

That’s what needs to happen, but now let’s look at what does happen. In Western Washington, with our marine climate and high organic-matter soils, our potato plants are still dominated by GA when ABA dominance is needed. Nitrogen released from organic matter promotes the GA dominance so it must be blocked. This is where high rates of molybdenum come into play.

Molybdenum (Mo) works by blocking the impact of nitrate release and reducing GA dominance. When this occurs, ABA is the dominant hormone and maturation begins. Without this process, you will wait 40 to 50 days for skins to set leaving the tubers exposed to silver scurf infection. Dr. Phil Hamm from Oregon State University has said many times that to prevent silver scurf, growers need to get the tubers out of the ground as soon as possible.

To aid in the maturation process, two different directions can be taken. One direction is to apply a small amount of Stoller’s CoMo Classic (2% Cobalt, 3% Molybdenum) throughout the growing season. This will keep the plants from becoming overly dominant by GA later in the season. The second method is to apply Stoller’s Phos Moly (3-28-0-4%Mo) at a rate of one quart per acre three weeks before vine kill. At this rate of Mo, the hormone will force the ABA to increase which will reduce GA.

We cannot change the weather, climate, or organic matter but we can change how they impact the potato crop. No magic, just good science.