- Author: Chris M. Webb
Many California farmers are moving away from furrow and sprinkle irrigation and towards drip irrigation. Transitioning to drip irrigation can provide many benefits, including the potential to increase crop yields with less irrigation water.
UC’s Drip Irrigation Salinity Management for Row Crops provides guidelines for controlling soil salinity under drip irrigation.
Topics include:
- Crop response
- Salt distribution around drip lines
- Salinity control
- Estimating the leaching fraction
- Monitoring soil salinity
- Final considerations
- And resources for additional information
- Author: Chris M. Webb
Vegetative filter strips can reduce or eliminate sediment, nutrients, pollutants and pathogens from moving from agriculture production areas and into waterways. UC’s free publication, Vegetative Filter Strips for Nonpoint Source Pollution Control in Agriculture is a must read for commercial producers. Full of practical information and specific instructions for reducing pollution runoff, it is written in a style that is both easy and enjoyable to read.
In addition to the following topics, this publication includes a glossary of terms and links to US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) websites which provide additional in-depth resources for food producers looking to reduce soil erosion and runoff from their operations.
Main topics in the publication are:
- Definition of vegetative filter strips
- Key design elements
- Examples of pollutant removal efficiency
- Best locations for vegetative filter strips
- Observed nonpoint source pollution control
- Pollutant-filtering mechanisms
Due to the potential for great improvement to environmental health, funding through the USDA may be available to producers looking to add vegetative filter strips. For further information, contact your local NRCS office.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
Soil erosion threatens our ability to feed ourselves in the future. Current concerns regarding soil erosion include economic vitality, environmental quality and human health.
How can losing a little soil to erosion be such a concern? Soil formation is a very slow process. It takes nature between 300 to 1,000 years to replace soil lost over a 25 year period at a loss rate of 1 mm per year. (25 mm is approximately 1 inch)
Erosion reduces the productivity in several ways: plants are not able to use nutrients as efficiently; seedlings are damaged; rooting depth is decreased; soil’s water-holding capacity is diminished; permeability is decreased; runoff increases; and the infiltration rate declines. The loss of healthy soil leads to poor plant growth and lower crop yields.
In the United States we lose an estimated 6.9 billion tons of fertile topsoil to erosion each year. Losses of this size are far from sustainable. In an effort to continue food production costly fertilizers and amendments are used to compensate for the lost soil. The loss of nutrients alone is estimated to cost U.S. farmers $20 billion a year.
As runoff carries sediment, nutrients, and agricultural chemicals off-site the economic and environmental costs skyrocket.
The University of California has resources to help reduce the loss of soil through erosion. Understanding Soil Erosion of Irrigated Agriculture provides information to help maintain the productivity of land and reduce the enormous costs associated with erosion.
Topics include:
- Impacts of soil erosion
- Types of water erosion
- Indicators of soil erosion
- Soil survey interpretations
- Land capability classification system
- Soil erosion factors
- New soil survey resources
Additional resources, for both commercial growers and home gardeners, can be found in our previous soil posts.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
Soil testing is an important component of a plant nutrient management program for farmers, home gardeners, and agricultural service personnel. Results from these tests can be used to improve nutrient management for crop production and environmental protection.
With assistance from UC Davis’ Dirk Holstege, Ventura County Cooperative Extension Advisors Jim Downer and Ben Faber along with Staff Research Assistant Maren Mochizuki conducted research to asses the accuracy of commercially available soil tests kits.
Soil analysis from five commercially available soil test kits were compared for accuracy against soil analysis completed at the UC Davis Analytical Laboratory. Much thought and care went into writing the findings of this study. In addition to analyzing the results of the kits, suggestions for improving accuracy and the role the kits can play in nutrient management programs are discussed.
Results and discussion from this study can be viewed on this page of our website.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
There are 17 elements essential for plant growth. These elements come from the air, water and soil. All must be present for a healthy plant.
An excess, deficiency or even an imbalance of these elements may lead to individual symptoms which are characteristic to most plants. The appearance of a plant can be used to help identify problems. The problems can be corrected with appropriate fertilizers, amendments and manures and also by soil and water management.
To learn more about these essential elements and how to interpret distress signs plants may provide, please see this section of our website.