In the previous regenerative orchard blog, we discussed the connection between perennial crops and soil fungi<\/a>, and introduced the importance of maximizing photosynthesis on the orchard floor. It is important to understand that when soil fungi increase, so does the entire plant microbiome. The function, health, and performance of a perennial crop is dependent on a healthy microbiome found on and within the plant, analogous to the importance of the human gut microbiome.<\/p>\n In this blog, I will begin linking regenerative principles to simple practices, which ultimately lead to increased photosynthesis throughout the year, which in turn lead to positive compounding effects to improving soil function, the farm ecosystem, and farm economics.<\/p>\n Maximizing Photosynthesis is the main driver for rapidly improving soil health and ecosystem function on any farm. Energy Flow is one of the ecosystem processes, and it can be also referred to as solar energy capture. This requires promoting lots of vegetative cover, as long as possible throughout the year, with a diversity of plants. I believe maximizing photosynthesis is so paramount in soil health education, we should be considering it as a soil health principle: Maximizing hotosynthesis. <\/p>\n Think about it for a moment. Maximizing Living Roots, Maximizing Soil Armor, Maximizing Diversity, and Reducing Soil Disturbance (four of the Six Soil Health Principles), can only occur if photosynthesis is being maximized on the land. This is why cover crops are so critical, and why it is critical in an orchard to allow vegetation to grow to a tall height and produce tremendous biomass at some point during the year.<\/p>\n Orchardists have been trained to keep the tree row strips clean and bare of vegetation, and keep the alleyways mowed tight to the ground. Historically in the western U.S., the cultural soil management practices included full tillage in most orchard crops, or the blanket spraying of herbicides to terminate everything. This is an all-or-nothing approach. I sometimes receive a quick rebuttal when I teach about maximizing vegetation biomass in the orchard to conventional growers. I am told, \u201cThere will be too much competition to the tree if you leave vegetation in the strip;\u201d \u201cThere are too many rodents and voles will take the trees out;\u201d \u201cInsects will increase;\u201d\u2026and the list goes on. So much fear has been engrained in the orchardist\u2019s mind about vegetation, but the aggressive termination of vegetation and ground cover is likely the greatest contribution to so many of an orchardist\u2019s problems.<\/p>\n The first process for anyone in the regenerative transition is to fully understand your farm\u2019s context and how you can maximize the implementation of the soil health principles. Maximizing vegetation, or photosynthesis, as much of the year as possible is the key. If you have young vines or trees, do not allow too much vegetation near the base for too long, and allow the cover crop middles to put on great biomass. If you have older, well-established trees, you can allow much more vegetation to proliferate. I will outline specific management strategies in this article.<\/p>\n Managing Biomass to Promote Plant and Biodiversity<\/strong><\/p>\n Introducing a wide range of plant species\u2014grasses, legumes, and broadleaf plants\u2014creates a dynamic system that supports diverse microbial populations. The organic matter from vegetation decomposes into the soil, feeding fungi and bacteria. Improved soil microbial health leads to positive compounding effects including improving nutrient cycling, improving water infiltration and water retention at the same time, eventually leading to a reduction in disease and pest pressure. This is also referred to as ecosystem function. Many orchard and vineyard diseases, such as phytophthora are created or exacerbated by agricultural practices which have created dysfunctional soils. Plain and simple, dysfunctional soils promote more disease and create conditions for common pests. Once the 6-3-4\u00d4 principles are implemented intentionally after three years (give or take), we generally see a huge reduction or complete elimination of common agricultural diseases.<\/p>\n To Seed or Not to Seed a Cover Crop?<\/strong>\u00a0 The good news, you can increase and bolster your orchard floor vegetation without seeding cover crops, but if the soil is highly degraded and dead, it is beneficial to seed cover crops to immediately increase diversity.\u00a0 I also recommend applying an all-around seed inoculant, composed of bacteria, fungi, and a biostimulant.\u00a0 This greatly enhances seed germination, immediately providing symbiosis to the plant, leading to greater cover crop productivity, and the cost is very cheap per acre.\u00a0 If you know the latent seed bank is rich, and vegetation populates on its own, you just you just need to intentionally manage the free plant species nature is providing and follow the steps below.<\/p>\n Delay and Reduce Mowing<\/strong>: Allow vegetation to grow tall and reach significant biomass before the first mowing. This builds soil armor, maximizes carbon and organic inputs, and enhances biodiversity.\u00a0 By maintaining more vegetation biomass in the tractor alleyways, or cover crop middles, you will begin enhancing the four ecosystem processes.\u00a0 We have found no issue in competition to tree or vines when managed well, and there is generally an immediate $100\/acre cost reduction<\/strong>.\u00a0 This is an easy way to save money. <\/p>\n Allow the Cover Crops or Alleyway Vegetation to Reach a Tall Height<\/strong>:\u00a0 More biomass equals greater rooting depth, which leads to deeper soil aggregation and deeper soil biology.\u00a0 We also want to allow some of the plant species to go to seed so we have a continual supply of free plants without seeding cover crops.\u00a0 Allowing the vegetation to put on great biomass, results in more plant diversity.\u00a0 NOTE: I AM NOT SAYING TO ALLOW THE VEGEATATION IN THE TREE ROW TO GROW EXTREMELY TALL.\u00a0 ONLY THE ALLEYWAYS.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Maintain Plant Residues and Litter<\/strong>: Leave at least 50% or 6-inch stubble of the above-ground vegetation intact in the alleyways to continue feeding soil biology and armoring the soil. We also need to capture and decompose the tree leaf litter in place, near the tree base. Leaf litter and small wood builds the duff around the tree which is critical for tree health. Many orchard floor sanitation practices prevent the organic buildup of duff, and these practices are actually contributing to the disease problems, by never allowing the beneficial saprophytic fungi to flourish. This advice is contrary to the conventional approach. Conventional farming wisdom states that the \u201cleaf litter is harboring and contributing to the disease pathogen load of the orchard.\u201d However, the duff supports beneficial saprophytic fungi which is one of nature\u2019s most powerful tools for reducing disease pathogens. General university recommendations include blowing or sweeping the leaf litter out from under the tree row, shredding it, and even applying up to 40 lbs of N as Urea to break it down. Orchard floor sanitation practices are known to cost anywhere between $100-200 per acre<\/strong> depending on the crop. Eliminating this practice means more easy savings in the bank account, not to mention an eventual decrease in pesticide application. <\/p>\n Managing the Tree Row Berm<\/strong><\/p>\n This is the greatest challenge for management. How to manage for good soil health in the tree or vine row? If the trees are young, say less than five yrs old, do not allow the \u201cweeds\u201d to become dense and tall. Period. And, of course, rodent habitat can be a serious issue. But also understand, \u201cRoots Fix Soil\u201d (a quote from Rick Haney, Ph.D.). I like to say it another way, \u201cRoots Build Biology.\u201d You have to find periods of time within the year to promote decent vegetation biomass near the tree. It does not have to be all or nothing<\/u><\/strong>. Reduce disturbances and increase soil armor. With my clients and in my own farming, I have found many strategies to accomplish this without any devigor to trees or vines.<\/p>\n High-density plantings certainly pose more challenges with the shallow, less robust root system, and tight spacing between each tree. However, when trees are well established and especially older trees on mid- to low-density planting, you can allow plenty of vegetation around the tree. I have witnessed trees \u201cperking\u201d back up, and we have fixed nutritional issues in trees by establishing more vegetation. It can go both ways. Too much competition of vegetation is bad, but little or no vegetation is potentially worse. Let\u2019s be honest, the majority of orchard tree rows are dead soils, compacted, sealed soil surfaces, and are not cycling nutrients. And if you are a nay-sayer, or fearful of promoting more vegetation, I ask you this:Is a little vegetation scaring you more than the dead, compacted soil your cash crop is growing in?<\/p>\n Examples of a typical orchard tree row berm, devoid of vegetation with excessive bare ground. The soil is very compacted, devoid of soil life, and has turned into “concrete”. The image on the right illustrates very poor water infiltration during a field water infiltration test. <\/em><\/p>\n Herbicide Reduction<\/strong><\/p>\n Herbicides, especially systemic and pre-emergent chemistries, harm soil fungi and sterilize the seed bank. Glyphosate is well known to lock up important soil minerals and nutrients, reducing the ability of the soil to cycle and make these nutrients available. We suspect many other herbicides could have a similar effect, but these have not been as scrutinized as glyphosate. What we do know is the routine application of herbicides applied to the tree row creates a soil \u201cdead zone,\u201d wherein the dysfunctional soil is not providing much in the way of nutrients. Interestingly, this is where we farm our cash crop\u2026in the most dysfunctional soil. <\/p>\n Well-established trees and vines can handle a fair amount of vegetation growing around or near the base, without causing yield reductions. In some cases, the soil is so compacted and dead, allowing native vegetation to grow immediately can improve tree health. The vegetation or \u201cweeds\u201d still need to be managed and not allowed to suffocate the tree. However, allowing vegetation to populate around the tree or vine during an extended period of the year (at least 4-6 months) improves soil function.<\/p>\n Simple Herbicide Reduction Strategies<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Eliminate Herbicides \u2013 Organic Weed Management<\/strong><\/p>\n This topic and recommended strategies likely require an entire blog, but I will keep it somewhat brief as a discussion point here. Eliminating herbicides and taking an organic weed management approach will result in better soil health, but this comes with a lot of additional expenses and equipment investments. The effectiveness of an organic approach is entirely context dependent, and these variables include the annual rainfall, soil type, age of tree or vine, rootstock and plant spacing, and premium for the product being grown. A multi-pronged approach is required, especially if farming brand new trees or vines organically. Here are some tips:<\/p>\n Last Thoughts<\/strong><\/p>\n There are many other practices to discuss, and one of the most powerful vegetation biomass tools is livestock integration. In the next blog series, I will examine Adaptive Grazing principles for orchards and vineyards. Livestock integration is not mandatory to begin improving soil health and creating a strong regenerative farm, but it is a powerful tool which can get us there much faster.<\/p>\n The post Regenerative Orchard Floor Management<\/a> appeared first on Understanding Ag<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Maximizing Photosynthesis: The #1 Soil Health Building Approach By: Chuck Schembre, Understanding Ag, LLC In the previous regenerative orchard blog, we discussed the connection between perennial crops and soil fungi, and introduced the importance of maximizing photosynthesis on the orchard floor. It is important to understand that when soil fungi increase, so does the entire […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12026],"tags":[1271,5984,5555,22302],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-123456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture","tag-floor","tag-management","tag-orchard","tag-regenerative"],"yoast_head":"\n\n\t\tMaximum Photosynthesis on the Orchard Floor
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Fundamental Practices to Support the 6-3-4 Framework<\/strong>:<\/h2>\n
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