32 minute read
Please Bee Kind with Chemicals
By Ronda Payne
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There isn’t a harder working insect with a symbiotic relationship to humans than a bee. Yet, despite the endless work of these creatures and their role in the human food supply, they face serious challenges to their survival. Some threats include the unintentional consequences of chemical sprays by the very people who rely on the bees for their livelihoods; the fruit growers. Andony Melathopoulos, assistant professor of Pollinator Health Extension with the Agricultural and Life Sciences department at Oregon State University, is on a mission to help pollinators, and even hosts his own OSU podcast called PolliNation. His work includes helping growers better balance bee health with the need to apply products that ensure better crop health, yields and vigour. Like all balancing acts, it’s no minor task. All pollinators can be at risk from chemical applications, primarily pesticides, but an increasing number of studies point to fungicides as well. However, it’s generally the diligent honey bee that faces the greatest adversity. The honey bees seen in colonies now, both wild and managed, are descendants of those originally imported from Europe in the 1600s. They’ve been part of food cultivation for a long time, but since the 1980s, concerns about their decline have grown. “It doesn’t take much to kill the bees,” Melathopoulos says. Undetermined colony collapse disorders, varroa mite-caused diseases, European foulbrood disease, Asian Giant Hornets and more have plagued the small fuzzy pollinators. The last thing they need is another challenge, but certain fruitgrowing practices have unwittingly exposed them to just that. Part of the problem stems from language used on labels.
Understanding what labels mean when it comes to bees
Any chemical label that says “highly toxic” or “toxic” to bees is obviously poisonous to them, but these types of descriptors mean it’s a single exposure that can cause deadly outcomes. “It’s often a lethal effect,” Melathopoulos explains. “It often looks like piles of dead bees in front of the colony. It has this characteristic bee kill look.”
This type of labelling language is simple enough, but this is where the black and white turns to shades of grey for growers. Bee toxicity information is generally included in environmental hazards or environmental cautions sections, but many older labels haven’t been updated. For newer labels, if there are no cautions, Melathopoulos says this means the registrant has done tests and it appears to not be toxic to bees.
Sometimes the statement “chronic toxicity” is used on older labels, though it’s not common.
“That toxicity can have lingering effects,” he says. “The bees may have a harder time foraging.” These chemicals may lead to their death, though not in as dramatic a fashion as a highly toxic product. But what about products that don’t use the word toxic? Might there still be harm to bees when they’ve been sprayed on the plants, and are their lingering effects?
“You’re going to see some mention of this on the label. It’s not as clear and not as direct,” Melathopoulos says. “When you look at the label, you’re going to look for language of whether the product remains toxic if [the bees are] actively visiting or visiting.” Some labels specify that harmful elements break down after a certain number of hours, which indicates the need to spray at night so bees aren’t active until the chemical is perceived to be harmless. If there is no time range for the breakdown of the product, it can be assumed that it takes longer than eight hours and shouldn’t be applied when bees are visiting or foraging. “The word ‘visiting’ can often be inter-
Beehives located among sweet cherries in a Fraser Valley orchard.
changed with ‘foraging’,” Melathopoulos says. “Don’t apply when bees are actively visiting the treatment area. The word actively suggests that you can… apply it in the evening.” If the product says “visiting” or “foraging” without the word “actively,”, sprays need to wait until after petal drop. Any time there are flowers, growers need to be very cautious as he says there is a lot of uncertainty about sprays any time plants are in full bloom. He adds that no matter what the product might say, avoid spraying during the day during the full bloom period. Before spraying at night during full bloom, he advises growers to talk to the registrant to ensure residual toxins break down within eight hours. “Hammer the plants hard before they come into bloom,” he advises. “Try to do your insect pest control while the risk is relatively low.” If there are flowering weeds in the hedgerow, don’t spray them and be careful of accidental overspray. Save these plants for bees to forage on. Additionally, don’t put colonies at row ends, keep them at a good distance from plants. “Putting a pallet of bees right up against the crop every 20 meters or 30 meters isn’t going to increase pollination and there’s no way you’re going to be able to protect those last plants without dousing that colony,” Melathopoulos says. Another concern is that the term ‘residual’ doesn’t cover whether the toxins in the product are systemically residual. This means that bees may not be harmed from a previous application, but the product may be found in the pollen or the nectar. This is not covered on product labels and has a place in the “risk cup” studies Melathopoulos is working on. The theory is that bees suffer a cumulative effect from all of the chemicals they come into contact with. However, present-day labelling focuses on a chemicalby-chemical basis and not a cumulative one.
Knowing all the answers to keep bees healthy is a long way off, but understanding product application better is a great start to creating more balance and better pollinator health.
BC'S AGRICULTURAL LAND RUSH
What's Behind the Blazing Hot Market
by Gary Symons
In recent months the news has been full of stories about Canada’s red hot housing market, as homes across the country sell for amounts well over the asking price, but there's been relatively little coverage of the blazing hot market for agricultural land in British Columbia. Like housing, farm land is on a recordbusting run in BC, particularly in places like the Okanagan Valley and the Creston Valley in the Kootenays, but few people outside those local farming regions have noticed the trend.
Part of the reason for that is the Farm Credit Canada annual report on farm land prices does not include lands used for fruit orchards or wine grapes, and so the report concluded land prices in the Okanagan had remained flat year over year, at 0.0 per cent. But when you factor in the lands used for orchards and vineyards, the increases are among the highest ever seen, and have resulted in the most expensive acreages in Canada at up to an astounding $300,000 per acre. “Prices were rising here in the Okanagan before the pandemic hit,” says agricultural realtor Jerry Geen. “We really noticed in 2019 the prices were pushing much higher. That trend started in 2016, and it has ramped up to record high levels right now.” And it’s not just the Okanagan. The price increases were noted by the FCC for the Kootenays and the Thompson-Nicola regions, and according to the FCC report the Kootenays saw a 28.1 per cent increase in value from 2019 to 2020, while the Thompson region experienced an increase of 16.7 per cent for irrigated lands. These changes come at a time of moderate increases for the Canadian farm land market as a whole, which rose by just 5.4 per cent in 2020, down from the 22.1 per cent the market experienced nationally in 2013. In fact, annual increases in Canadian farm land prices have generally been in decline in recent years. Since that high in 2013, land prices in-
creased by 14.3 per cent in 2014, by 10 per cent in 2015, and since then have hovered between five and eight per cent. BC, however, has been an outlier in the market. The province showed the highest overall increase in prices nationally this year, at 8.2 per cent, but that increase does not include what happened in the Okanagan Valley, due to the FCC not tracking the sales of orchard lands. Instead, we went to the realtors and the appraisers who deal with the market every day, and found a very different story. To put it simply, certain parcels of farm land in the Okanagan, the Kootenays and the Thompson-Nicola regions are seeing explosive growth, and the trends are critically important for farmers to understand.
So, what’s happening, and why?
Most of the story has to do with the extraordinary demand for high quality grapes and cherries; two crops that can only grow in a very limited number of parcels in certain parts of British Columbia. With farmers earning record high prices from cherry buyers in China, and wineries racking up impressive profits, growers have realized there’s a race on to acquire the best lands for these crops. “The market is extremely active, and as far as price increases, it’s hard to keep up,” says appraiser Brian Pauluzzi, owner of NCA Commercial. “To appraise in this market is difficult because every new deal is kind of a new limit. The changes
The demand for high-quality grapes and cherries is driving the market.
The market is extremely active, and as far as price increases, it's hard to keep up … to appraise in this market is difficult because every new deal is kind of a new limit.
Brian Pauluzzi
in market conditions have been so swift, and you don’t typically find that in agricultural land. On the residential side you get massive fluctuations, but the Ag sector typically has not been as volatile as what you’re seeing today.” In this month’s Orchard & Vine, we’re taking a deep dive in this Special Feature on the BC Land Rush, identifying the five primary reasons these local markets have exploded while other regions remain relatively flat.
Part One: Fruit Prices
“From a sheer business point of view, all the money in the market right now is in cherries and grapes,” says Jerry Geen, a veteran realtor who grew up in an Okanagan farm family, and founder of the Geen + Byrne Real Estate Team with
New cherry trees planted in the East Kelowna area of the Central Okanagan Valley in British Columbia are a sign of the changing times for farmers.
RE/MAX Kelowna. “Those are the two areas where the most revenue per acre are seen.”
For example, Geen has friends who gross $20,000 to $30,000 per acre for table grapes, and the revenue for wine grapes can be significantly higher, as are prices for cherries, where some top farmers have clocked in with revenues up to $60,000 per acre. For that reason, Geen says the market is seeing unprecedented values for suitable land.
“Any of the premium sites that are suitable for orchard right now, if they’re unplanted or planted with old varieties that need to be removed, from Coldstream to the border, 100K to 120K is your start point per acre, and some people paying values above 200K per acre for cherry orchards.
"We have also seen a few anomaly sales where high-profile winery operators are paying upwards of 250 thousand to 350 thousand for mature vineyards.” Realtor Scott Marshall of RE/MAX Kelowna, a fifth-generation Okanagan resident from a long-time farming family, says he recently brokered a deal for roughly 10 acres of land that sold for $3.2 million. “There is definitely a large increase in prices for any land that is viable for cherries or vineyards,” Marshall said. “We’ve lost a significant amount of our apple stock over the last year, because it is not making enough revenue in comparison to cherries. You can drive around and literally see people ripping out their apples so they can plant cherries.” That demand for cherries came from the initiative taken by the Canadian and BC governments to sign a deal with China, establishing clear rules and procedures for cherry exports. Since then, demand for BC’s high-quality cherries has exploded, and with them, the prices for orchard land as well.
Pauluzzi says the same applies to vineyards, particularly because grape growers and cherry orchardists are often competing for the same land. “I think with the prices of wine, the prices of grapes, this is a long-term trend rather than a price bubble,” Pauluzzi said. “Several years ago when prices of grapes fell you saw some of the bigger players selling off their land holdings or divesting their grape contracts, so even in the last decade it’s a complete 180. Now I know they’re kicking themselves and they’re looking for land anywhere, even as far north as Oyama.”
Part Two: Cornering the Market
According to Wine Growers BC, there are now 185 licensed wineries in the Okanagan Valley, and 8,830 acres planted with wine grapes. For many years, according to appraiser Brian Pauluzzi, the market for vineyards was driven by new players entering the market, and typically they would buy smaller parcels of 10 to 20 acres.
This number is no accident. Under BC law, one can only open an estate winery if the winery has 10 or more acres of vineyard. As a result, new wine companies would often buy a small parcel in order to establish the winery, and then buy grapes from established growers. But while demand may once have been driven by new winemakers looking for smaller parcels, that has now changed due to the success of the region’s wineries and grape growers. “Wineries in the Okanagan and Similkameen have done very well, and over the years you’ve started to see market consolidation,” Pauluzzi says. “Larger companies are buying successful wineries, but they’re also expanding their production,
and that requires larger parcels of land. “The issue is, large acreages in the Okanagan are almost impossible to find, and now you have the big players in the market - the Arterras, Peller, the Mission Hill group, Sandhill and so on - who are going after those bigger properties. They are consolidating the market where they can, and all they want are those bigger parcels, because they need those economies of scale to make their model work.”
Realtor Scott Marshall agrees, pointing to recent transactions of between $250,000 and $350,000 per acre. “There’s an influx of buyers from the Osoyoos area coming into the Central Okanagan right now,” Marshall says. “They are cashing out of their orchards and vineyards down there at obscene prices. I mean, some of them are getting $350K an acre down there, and if you look at what they can get here (the Central Okanagan), all of a sudden that $250K an acre is relatively affordable.” Geen says he’s seeing those same high prices for land suitable for cherries, wine grapes and table grapes, linked directly to high fruit prices. “A lot of it is simply supply and demand,” Geen says. “There are a lot of larger scale vineyards, cherry orchardists and winery operators who are trying to get bigger, and it’s a simple fact that there’s only so much land suitable for cherry orchards and vineyards in the Valley. “If you have a lot of small parcels, you don’t achieve that economy of scale, so we are now seeing the bigger operators looking for the larger parcels of land, where they can be more efficient and drive down the cost of grape production.”
And in a country where the amount of suitable land is severely limited, that can be a concern for all winery and orchard operators. “There’s only so much land, and they’re not making any more of it,” Geen pointed out. “What is there, maybe 20,000 acres of land in the Okanagan that’s ideal for grapes? Once that’s gone, it is gone, and so the supply and demand question is very, very real.” All of that said, no one really knows how high prices have risen for orchard land in the Okanagan, as the FCC typically tracks land used for hay and field crops, but did not track sales of fruit orchards or vineyards. “I couldn’t say exactly what the increase has been,” admits Marshall. “But I am comfortable saying prices have risen by about 15 to 20 per cent for that type of agricultural land.”
Part Three: The China Effect Hits The Kootenays
The Okanagan Valley is Canada’s best known growing region for cherries, but it’s not the only one. In fact, experts say cherries grown in the Creston Valley, a micro-climate in the Kootenays, are equally good, and among the best in the world.
When cherry prices soared after the Canada-China trade deal, land in the Creston Valley suddenly became immensely profitable, and profitability has bred high demand. The FCC report for 2020 says prices for farm land rose a shocking 28.1 per cent in a single year, but real estate experts say the vast majority of that is related to cherry orchards. “It’s all Creston,” says Pauluzzi. “The prices they paid even three years ago, compared to now, it’s almost doubled. We
There are new cherry orchards being planted all over the region as cherries replace apples, hay and field crops.
There's only so much land, and they're not making any more of it… Once that's gone, it is gone, and so the supply and demand question is very, very real. Jerry Geen
have the best cherries in the world, and the cherry orchards in Creston are huge now. The distributors there say they get some of the highest prices for cherries in the world, for some of the best product in the world, and that’s why (buyers) are paying six bucks a pound.” Geen says he’s hearing the same thing from cherry growers in Creston and the Okanagan alike. “One of the factors driving (land) prices is that some of the larger, better growers are making record revenues, up to $30,000 to $60,000 an acre,” Geen said. “Sure, it may seem crazy to pay 200 grand an acre, but it makes sense if you can make that kind of money.” Marshall adds that farmers are naturally entrepreneurial, and make hard business calculations based on business risk, cost of production, and price per kilogram. The math, he says, is pushing farmers to invest in the Creston Valley, Kootenays, and further north into Kamloops, Pritchard and Ashcroft.
“You can get some pretty good-sized land parcels up there, with proper air and water drainage, so I’m not surprised people are willing to take a shot,” he said. “Compared to here, where 30 acres of high producing cherries could be priced at $5 million or so, then you look at what $5 million can do in these other regions, then it comes down to a risk calculation of how likely it is that you’ll get a catastrophic frost event. For the same price as 30 acres in the Okanagan you could have hundreds of acres fully planted out and ready to go.”
Part Four: Fruit Production Expands Into New Areas
All three of the experts we spoke to agreed that increasing land and fruit prices, combined with the impact of climate change and hardier varieties, are changing the geography of fruit production in the BC Interior, which is spreading outward from the Okanagan and Creston Valleys. “We are seeing levels now that you would normally not even think of in the past when it comes to price per acre,” said Pauluzzi. “What we’re also seeing is more marginal lands, lands that you would previously not see as appropriate for a vineyard, being sold for vineyard. “In Osoyoos along the highway 97 corridor the flat lands that used to be cattle
Buyers priced out of the market in the Central and South Okanagan (seen here) are moving north to find more affordable land.
and field crops, land that is low and subject to frost, we’re now seeing that being planted. We’re also seeing that in Kelowna with cherries, flat land around the airport that never had an orchard on it. "Basically hay lands, flat as a pancake and therefore susceptible to frost, and now there’s hundreds of acres planted in cherries, so it’s really quite something to watch.”
Geen says his family is a good example of that. His brother, David Geen, President of the Coral Beach cherry business, is one of Canada’s largest cherry farmers, and in recent years he has undertaken a massive expansion in more northerly areas. In a previous interview with Orchard & Vine, David Geen said farmers are growing their business by planting hardier fruits developed at the Summerland Research Station, and thus harvesting their cherries when the rest of the market is out of fruit.
“Things have changed a lot since my great grandfather began fruit farming at Carr’s Landing/Lake Country in 1903,” he said. “For one, the center of gravity has moved north.”
No one planted cherries in Lake Country back in the day, says Geen, let alone in Vernon. Yet today, Coral Beach only farms from Kelowna north and in 2018 the company broke ground on a new orchard site at Pritchard, 40 kilometres east of Kamloops along the South Thompson River. When the Pritchard property is in production by 2023, that will increase Coral Beach Farms total cherry plantings to 1080 acres, with the most northerly site in North America.
The resurgence of the BC cherry industry stems from new varieties, starting with the Lapin, that was hardier and less prone to cracking. First planted by pioneering farmer Hugh Dendy, these new varieties have allowed growers to plant further north and higher up. They also did something even more important. The new ‘Northern’ varieties are harvested later in the year, after fruit from competing producers in the US are long gone. As a result, those cherries are the last quality fruit left on the market, and are snapped up at high prices by Chinese buyers. As a result, Marshall says farmers are looking for land in what were once very remote areas, allowing them to get into the market at lower cost.
“I’m seeing a general shift further north in an attempt to find lower land prices,” Marshall said. “Looking into the Kootenays, looking at Kamloops, Pritchard and Ashcroft areas, if you can get land up there for 5,000 an acre and water right out of the Thomson River, there’s some really interesting opportunities. You can get cheap land and accessible water, so then it comes down to whether someone is willing to take on the perceived risk of planting further north, and the logistics of the operation.” On that note, both Marshall and Geen say climate change is playing a role, reducing the risk of devastating frost damage.
I'm seeing a general shift further north in an attempt to find lower land prices … it comes down to whether someone is willing to take on the perceived risk of planting further north.
Scott Marshall
“I would say they are being successful because we haven’t had that catastrophic frost event in recent memory,” Marshall says. "I know people planting hundreds of acres of tree fruits up around Ashcroft that 10 years ago, people would think they are absolutely crazy. Similarly I’ve sold some properties for cherries so high up from an elevation perspective that some farmers still cannot believe it.”
Geen says his brother David is a great example of that trend, as Coral Beach invests millions in land, infrastructure and new plantings. “Look at how my brother has planted cherries way up in Pritchard,” he says. “Yes, there was a huge winter kill situation there around 1969, but with new varieties and the changes from global warming, that area is coming back. “Now I have clients buying land that others thought didn’t make any sense. ‘Winter kill, frost damage, what are you buying that for?’ But the reality of it is, global warming has changed things.” Pauluzzi says he’s had to change his thinking due to global warming as well. “When I started in this business, I learned from this great agrologist and appraiser named Les Holmes, and he always told me if you see these (types of) lands being planted, you know the market’s gone insane,” said Pauluzzi. “But now, you’re seeing it happen in higher elevations to get a later crop, so you’re not competing with everyone in the valley bottoms or the lower benches.
“If you’re higher up, you’re able to sell later when there’s no cherries, so that’s why they do it,” he adds. “All the cherries from the summer are gone, and they now have cherries to bring into the market when no one else does.”
Part Five: Rise of the Hobby Farmer
While the vast majority of the price increases had to do with the cherry and grape sectors, experts say the COVID-19 pandemic combined with the red-hot real estate market in the Lower Mainland are also factors.
For many years the Okanagan Valley has experienced the phenomenon of urban dwellers selling off their high-priced city homes, and buying a 10-acre parcel for a combined home and hobby farm. The experts we spoke to said the pandemic has accelerated that process. “Covid has had a fascinating effect on agricultural land because people have realized they can now work wherever they want to,” Marshall says. “I’m seeing a ton of people from the Lower Mainland coming here, they’ve sold their urban home for two and a half million, and then they look at what they can get in the Okanagan for that kind of money. “If they like the idea of having a hobby farm with revenue coming off the land, and a beautiful farm or orchard to look at, they can roll the money they’ve made from their Lower Mainland home into quite an impressive property up here,” he adds. “That’s had a strong effect on pricing.” Geen says he’s seeing the same thing. “I think COVID was an eye-opening experience for a lot of people who have lived in larger cities their whole lives, and then they realize, ‘Maybe I don’t want to be living in a 40-story condo, or jammed in with a lot of other people’, but they don’t want to move to the boondocks because they want the amenities, the international airport, the university, and so on. “In the Central Okanagan there’s a draw there because you can have a lot more space and not be off in the total boondocks.”
As well, Geen points out that owners of hobby farms get a concrete benefit in the form of tax breaks for farm land, as long as they keep the land in production. “My brother Kevin lives on a 10-acre orchard property out in Okanagan Center,” he said. “Big Craftsman style home with stunning views of Okanagan Lake and all
that stuff, but the land is all planted as orchard, so the land taxes on the orchard part are very low. Farm status is a good thing!” Pauluzzi says the pandemic trend can be seen in recent farm appraisals, and in the people who are buying up smaller parcels after moving from the Lower Mainland or other urban areas.
“We are getting people moving into the Okanagan from the Lower Mainland,” he says. “COVID has really changed people’s perspective on commuting to work, so now you have people taking early retirement, they have money from their property, they come here and realize, wow, I could run a smaller five or 10 acre vineyard, have some fun and change my lifestyle.”
The Land Rush Is Here to Stay
All the experts we spoke to said they don’t believe the current market is a bubble, and all believe demand and prices will remain high. Demand for BC’s high quality wines continues to grow, and that industry will likely improve even further as climate change allows for more plantings in what were once marginal lands. The same is even more true for the cherry market. Demand for cherries from China is almost insatiable, and while that country is noted for imposing punishing trade tariffs on its critics, including Canada, most observers believe the cherry sector is too small to present an attractive target for that type of trade dispute, unlike Canada’s canola or pork industries. As a result, Pauluzzi predicts there will be a strong market for decades to come. “I don’t see this changing, I really don’t,” he said. “If COVID doesn’t hurt the market, I don’t know what could. Other than a complete economic failure, what can derail this market?”
A bigger question for farmers in this sector will be how to locate land that is both affordable and practical for inclusion in the lucrative grape and cherry sectors. Geen and Marshall say growers will almost certainly continue looking northward and upward for land needed for expansion. Those lands benefit from lower prices, and while they may be more subject to the risk of frost damage, they also present the opportunity for a later cherry crop that commands higher prices. Areas like Ashcroft and Pritchard are now coming into their own for fruit production, and at prices that are a fraction of land in the Okanagan Valley. That said, Pauluzzi also says the changes in the market are so rapid and so vast that it’s almost a requirement to get an appraisal on the land, and to have a specialty agrologist check out more northerly properties to assess the risk of frost damage. “We have our ears to the rail and we know what’s happening in the market, so it’s definitely a good idea to get an appraisal in general,” he said. “But, now that we are seeing such significant price increases over a short period of time, it’s hard to keep up, and therefore it’s more important so you can be sure you’re getting the value for your land in this market. Properties are literally selling over list, and unless you’re in the industry, you wouldn’t necessarily know that.”
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Know Thy Soil, Improve Thy Fruit
By Ronda Payne
The best fruit comes from the right soil, making soil testing an essential part of growing.
On her website, the microgardener.com, Anne Gibson says, “Invest in your soil. Your plants will only be as healthy as the soil they’re grown in.” While her advice is intended for smallscale gardeners, the same facts hold true for commercial-scale growers with orchards and vineyards. Healthy plants grow in healthy soils that meet plant needs and the plants, in turn, will deliver the best quality fruit. Soil health is just as important in an established orchard, berry field or vineyard as it is for a new planting area because over time, climate, growing conditions, pests and other factors change the soil. It needs to be considered in all stages of fruit production from planting to harvest as soil health is part of the overall ecosystem of the plants. In fact, in a talk about growing for seeds, Connie Kuramoto of Gardens on the Go Horticultural Training and Services says optimal soil conditions grow healthy plants that produce healthy seeds. “No matter how you slice it, healthy soil is important,” she says. She suggests that examining the soil for biological fertility (macro and microfauna, organic matter, biological activity) is even more important than the chemical composition. The physical fertility (structure, composition, water movement, etc.) is also key to the entire soil health – and therefore plant health – outcome. Sonja Peters, agrologist and owner of Greenbush Greenhouses and Farm and Greenbush Consulting of Lumby, refers to Gibson’s point about soil health when asked why soil testing is important. “The soil in an orchard or vineyard is such an important aspect of crop management,” she says. “Soil health and quality are important in producing high-yielding, top-quality fruit. It’s also important for long-term plant health, especially in adverse weather conditions.” Almost all growers have some sort of soil and/or nutrient plan, but what is that based on? If established planting areas haven’t been tested in more than three years, it’s time. Plans for new planting areas need to include soil testing as well. Samples should be taken in the spring or the fall. Not only do sample results allow the grower to add amendments to the area before peak growing begins, they also ensure money isn’t wasted on additives that may not be needed and could adversely impact the environment. Soil tests fall into two different categories, according to Peters. “Soil tests help determine the acidity of or alkalinity, salinity, relative quantities of available plant nutrient and organic matter content of the soil,” she explains. “Foliar or petiole testing can also help determine which nutrients are lacking.” Soils can vary dramatically within a growing block, so multiple samples should be taken and sent to a lab for analysis. For detailed advice on taking soil samples, she recommends the BC Tree Fruit Production Guide (in the fruit tree nutrition section) or the British Columbia Wine Grape Council’s Best Practices Guide for Grapes (in the vineyard establishment and vineyard maintenance sections). Simplistically, she explains the process as: “Traverse the sample area in a zigzag pattern and sample one meter from the trunk of 20 to 30 trees, depending on the size of the field. The more samples that are taken, the more accurate the results will be.”
The hole should be 15 to 30 centimeters deep before taking a 2.5-centimeter slice from the bottom (about 500 grams of soil), place in a bucket and repeat for each tree.
“When done, remove any rocks or organic matter like grass, leaves or roots from the sample, mix it well and place it in the sample container.”
Anne Gibson encourages soil testing for biological fertility and chemical composition.
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Each lab has its own sampling form, so label the sample containers correctly and fill out the forms including the type of crop before mailing the sample in. Results will be provided by email within a week or two including interpretation and potentially some recommendations.
“Be sure to use values that are specific to your crop,” she advises. “When comparing target values with those on the lab report, ensure that the units and method are the same. The goal is to determine if your levels for each nutrient are low, optimal or excessive.”
She recommends the Best Practices Guide for Grapes for grape target values and the Washington State University guide to fruit tree nutrition and management. Growers might also ask their fruit associations for crop-specific resources.
“Once you know which nutrients are low in the soil of your field, you can now take this information and update your nutrient program,” she says. “Organic matter, soil structure and nutrients can be added using quality compost and manure products. If you have access to compost or manure, then this is an excellent option and can be applied at the base of the trees. Be sure to keep the material away from the trunk of the tree.”
Any manure or compost applied to a field should also be tested as explained by Lindsey Slaughter, soil microbial ecology/biochemistry assistant professor with the department of Plant and Soil Science with Texas Tech University. She oversaw thesis research of graduate student Rael Otuya, who had the team undertake a two-year study exploring the interaction between composted manure application “If someone is using their own manure or locally provided manure from another farmer, they should definitely get the manure analyzed for nutrient levels including nitrogen if possible, phosphorus, potassium and other nutrients that we commonly test for in fertilizers and soils before use,” Slaughter says. “Farmers should treat manure like a fertilizer, where the carbon and benefits to soils and microbes is a bonus.”
Because the study was done in a semi-arid region, the soil was lacking in soil microbial biomass and soil carbon, both of which assist in the breakdown of organic matter, improve overall soil health and increase the vigor of plants. Although this testing was done in forage fields, the outcomes can be extended to other crop types. “There are some general results from our study and others that hold true across North America, namely adding manure increases soil carbon and microbes,” Slaughter notes. Peters suggests referring to management schedules in the BC Crop Production Guides to help determine what types of fertilizers to apply and when. Manure may not be the ideal solution depending upon crop and soil needs. Additionally, she says some types of nutrients may be better applied by foliar fertilization, such as boron, zinc, magnesium and sometimes calcium.
Soil health is the very foundation of quality fruit, yet sometimes it is overlooked or assumed to be the same as it had been in previous years. Regular soil tests will give growers the information they need to ensure their fruit has the best start possible.
