Beer and Planting!

Enjoy one while doing the other and you might end up with crooked rows - and maybe even in the wrong field!  Using and enjoying the knowledge that can be gleaned from both can set you up with a crop to be proud of. 
Giving your crop the best start possible could be compared to starting a batch of beer.
Success is not guaranteed, all you can do is attempt to control and guide the process.
I like this comparison because it gives me a chance to explain the growing use and acceptance of biological inputs in a way that is easy to follow.

Let’s start with sanitation. 
In the field you have tasks like residue management, weed control including trying to keep the weed seed bank low, and varying levels of soil prep for what you plan to plant.  There are also disease and insect hosts in and around the field that should be scouted and appropriate actions taken when enough of a potential problem is found.  For some crops fumigation is used to achieve a certain level of soil sanitization.  This can be useful but remember that everything is killed with fumigation even the good guys. 

In brewing, sanitation is also very important.  It is very similar to the approach in the field.  You do not need total sterilization or control.  Just address the most common problems and decrease the numbers of bacteria/fungi in preparation for guiding the brewing process in your desired direction.  All you need to do is level the playing field to give you a greater chance of success. 

Could you have a successful crop with minimal prep?  Sure, but the odds are against it.

Could you have a safe tasty beer with minimal sanitation?  Sure, but the odds are against it.

Next let’s cover adding enough nutrients to the system to provide for the end product.

In the field this should involve soil testing to have an idea of what nutrients are already in the soil and their levels.  There are many other pieces of information that are made available at the same time.  Soluble salts, pH, percent organic matter, and cation exchange capacity are just a few.  This information is then used, along with the needs of the crop to be planted to figure out what nutrients need to be added to the field soil, or what will need to be supplied to the crop during the season.

In brewing this involves making wort – a watery solution of sugars, starches, and enzymes extracted from barley.  Plus any myriad of other ingredients added for flavor, aroma, and texture goals.  It is becoming common to add a liquid nutrient package to the wort along with the yeast to get fermentation off to a healthy start.

So now you have this nutrient rich medium all ready to go.   
In the field this might mean a well prepared seed bed ready to plant.  
 In brewing this would be a fermenter full of cooled to room temperature wort.

Are you going to leave things to chance and hope the right kind of yeast or even bacteria (sour beers are gaining in popularity) floats along in the air and lands in your wort?  NO!  Only primitive man had to go about it this way!  You are going to “pitch” a large amount of a wonderful hard-working yeast strain that has been in use by humankind for many years.  It is an infection or inoculation of sorts; you are deciding how those nutrients you so carefully put together are going to be used.  You are going to control and guide the fermentation process to get the alcohol content, flavors, aromas, and mouth feel that you want.

It is the same for your crop and field!  Are you going to leave the seed or transplant at the mercy of chance? NO!  Only primitive man had to go about it this way!  The nutrient rich seedbed and impending rhizosphere are like the nutrient rich wort for making beer.  You should “pitch” biological inoculants with the seed or in the root zone.  If you have a recently fumigated soil then there is even more risk to going the “chance” route.  We know that many pathogenic bacteria and fungi can reproduce faster than other benign and beneficial microbial soil dwellers.   So rather than control your soil and plant “infection” now you have just handed the pathogens virgin territory to exploit along with some nice tasty plant snacks.  Don’t risk it and leave it to chance – control your crop's root zone and root development – and crowd out the bad guys – just like your local brewer!

We know that we can influence what happens in the root zone.  One way is to control the “infection” or inoculate the root zone with a large population of assorted “good guy” bacteria and fungi.  Part of this equation is in the simple physical nature of our world, any system has limits of what it can support.  If large numbers of crop friendly beneficial microbes are inoculated into the system many pathogens will be held at bay through competitive exclusion.  In the same way a vigorously fermenting yeast in a batch of beer will not allow molds and bacteria to gain a foothold.   

You decide – do you want phytopthera or rhizoctonia to infect your roots or do you want some trichodermas and fluorescent pseudomonads to be more prevalent?

At Ag Tech Services, LLC we have the knowledge, and the products to accomplish this.

Sometimes, while on a sales call with an organic producer or soil health oriented conventional producer I run into the question “aren’t we encouraging beneficial microbes with adding compost or using compost teas?”  Yes in the broad sense of stimulating the existing soil biology, which is mostly made up of the actinomycetes.  This approach is great for land you own and want to improve for the short and long term, but the benefits will be more general and a gradual process.  However in a land rent situation I would choose to target my crop and its growth and development versus improving soil that I do not own. 

The rationale for this is similar to how you choose to go about using other ag products.  Are you going to broadcast it or band it, full canopy spray or a basal spray?  Logistics, economics, targets, and product efficiencies have to be considered as well.

The approach we take and the specific organisms we use are targeted specifically at your crop and more importantly your crop’s roots.  These microbials are symbiotic root zone dwellers not bulk soil organisms like the actinomycetes.  They need the plant to support them in their life cycle, and in return they provide benefits to the plant.  This is a targeted approach to disease suppression and plant growth promotion.  Beneficial bacteria - Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus polymyxa, Paenibacillus azotofixans, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Pseudomonas putida, Azotobacter chroococcum, Azospirillum brasilense.  

Beneficial fungi - Trichoderma atroviride, Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium anisopliae.

Once again back to my brewing analogy – there would be a high failure rate in brewing if we were hoping for the right combination of events in nature – versus knowing what will happen when we control and guide the natural fermentation process in the direction we want.

Controlling other variables

In brewing there is usually some consideration given to environmental factors like temperature and light. 

In open field agriculture we take what we get, but look at how much production is taking place all over the world in greenhouses, shadehouses, and high tunnels.  There are many industries that have learned to steer around common problems. 

Too many soil diseases? – Move to soilless mediums. 

Too many environmental stressors? – Move inside or under cover and control more of the variables. 

Not enough light for production at the desired time of year? – Supplement with electric light.

So… if you have a crop that has susceptibility to disease or a tough time becoming established? – Improve your chances of success and control your root zone to guide the crop to high yield and quality.  

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.