Assessing compost tea effects on soil health and crop quality in semi-arid farming systems

Commodities

Practices

• Crop Production: organic fertilizers
• Education and Training: on-farm/ranch research
• Soil Management: soil quality/health

There are a multitude of soil amendments and biological products being marketed to or recommended to growers with a range of claims. Some of these claims include: increased yield, increased nutrient density, increased soil health, and increased soil biology. However, the data to back up these claims are often non-existent or anecdotal at best. This project was initiated by a group of producers who want to rigorously evaluate the impacts of compost tea with and without additional additives on their soil health, crop productivity, and crop quality. In particular, they want to know if these amendments are improving the soil biological community abundance and activity. We will carry out a two year field study on six fields across three farms with replicated treatment and control strips within each field. We will analyze crop productivity, nutrient content, and soil health metrics each year across all treatments. The collaborating producers will host an interactive field day to share their experiences and team members will lead a workshop on how to interpret complex soil biological test data. Research findings and educational resources developed from this project will be integrated into existing and growing soil health networks across the region. We expect that producers will: 1) have better information to guide their amendment management decisions; and 2) will have a greater understanding of how to interpret soil biological test results.

Obj 1: Evaluate the impacts of compost tea and compost tea + biochar on soil health and crop productivity and quality

Obj 2: Develop resources in collaboration with producers for interpreting on-farm experimental results and soil biological test data