Bulldoze to Bumper Almond Crop — Regenerative Land Solutions

Ben Schroeder, a long time almond farmer from Wasco, CA, began experimenting with soil biology in 2018 by trying some bugs in a jug. He didn’t see any results, which is not surprising. Most companies are selling lab grown bacteria or a couple strains of fungi and asking farmers to add it on top of their existing program with limited big picture changes or a focus on diversity. He also tried a few local compost teas and worm tea extracts in 2019 and 2020 that didn’t move the needle.

One of the fields he was trying to turn around was an older 52 acre block that had serious water penetration problems and several almond disease pathogens that were not being controlled through conventional chemistry. Yields would fluctuate depending on the quality of water or amount of standing water each year, with the worst year only producing 1900 lbs per acre of Nonpareil variety and 2100 lbs Monterey variety. The orchard was full of phytophthora root rot, bacterial canker, hull rot and alternaria, and he was contemplating bulldozing it and starting over. He had spent years on conventional chemistry, fungicides, nutritional products, and soil health products to no avail.

Back in 2018, while working with Jerel at Regenerative Crop Consulting, Inc., Ben stopped applying gypsum to this orchard because the soil test showed plenty of available calcium. In 2019 and 2020, Ben tried soil surfactants and penetrants, but those also didn’t work. Both gypsum and soil surfactants are standard practices in Kern County almonds due to widespread water penetration problems. One of the reasons for all the disease in this orchard was the lack of water penetration. Ben had spent years chasing better infiltration by using gypsum and surfactants from the big national ag chem suppliers.

Ben was working with Jerel on an organic orchard in 2019 and 2020, using Earthfort’s Provide and Revive products (see previous almond case studies). In 2020, he let Jerel make some changes to his conventional orchards including this one. He started by using around 6 gallons Provide and 6 lbs Revive spread out over 6 applications in the growing season, on top of his conventional program, without making any changes to the chemical approach. One year in, this didn’t seem to affect anything and the yields continued to decline.

Then, in 2021, Jerel revised the timing of the Provide and Revive program to late fall and early spring applications, but used the same total rate per acre, and had Ben drill in a custom Green Cover Seed nine-species cover crop mix. He also slowly began changing his fertilizer program by removing as much nitrate/salt containing fertilizers as possible.

In this first year of proper transition, water penetration began to improve some and Jerel could see the soil was changing, but the diseases were still present. After harvest in 2021, the trees were full of fruit buds, which hadn’t been the case in previous years. In 2022, Jerel significantly reduced the synthetic nitrogen by more than 50%, used more protein and amino acid based materials, continued with Provide and Revive, and again drilled in a cover crop.

The yield on this block for 2022 was over 3500 lbs per acre averaged for both varieties, with the Monterey coming in at over 3800 lbs per acre. What was once his lowest yielding field was now his highest yielding field.

The county average for almonds in 2022 was around 2200 lbs/acre, with the industry as a whole reporting widespread reduced yields and significantly smaller sized kernels which results in lower weights per kernels. The general feeling among almond growers in Kern County is this was the result of the serious drought over the last several years and the lack of snowmelt water from the Sierras forcing growers to pump salty, poor quality groundwater. However for Ben, the soil health had improved so dramatically that the trees performed as if it was a bumper crop year! Almond prices at the end of 2022 were at extremely low prices, and unless the prices come up many growers might lose money on their 2022 crop, yet Ben is hopeful to be profitable thanks to his soil health journey.

Not only did Ben’s yields increase, but he saw a dramatic decrease in phytophthora root rot and bacterial canker, and the alternaria and hull rot completely disappeared. His trees, which used to ooze sap out of almost every tree trunk, cleaned up nicely. Water penetration went from less than 6 inches to over 3 feet, without any gypsum or surfactants, but instead using biology, cover crops, and dramatically reducing salt based fertilizers.

This kind of change is hard, and a lot of farmers start when they are backed into a corner, like Ben was on this field. That said, it doesn’t have to be that way. Now Ben has his entire operation on this program, including a fully organic orchard, and is starting new orchards on this regenerative path from the beginning. In late 2022, he planted a new field of almonds and incorporated Provide, Revive, Grower’s Secret Nitrogen and Seaweed, a custom Green Cover Seed nine-species cover crop mix, and adjustments to his other inputs. He believes this is the future and we don’t know what the potential limit is. Kudos to Ben for being a trailblazer.