Author: Andrew McGuire
Water Use Limitations of Cover Crops in Dryland Cropping
I have seen it work. As a graduate student, I researched cover crops in a California dryland wheat system, comparing a wheat-fallow system to one…
Potato Cropping Systems to Manage Soilborne Disease
Long-term cropping systems research is expensive, difficult to manage, and therefore rare, especially for vegetable crops. So when results are published for potato cropping systems,…
A Problem with Soil Inoculants
As I wrote in my last post, the focus and excitement around soil biology leads many to believe that they have a soil biology problem.…
Don’t Overthink Your Soil Biology
I am not sure of the causes. Perhaps it’s the demand for soil health information which far surpasses the supply of science-based content? Or maybe…
Fine-Tuning with Soil Health; Soilborne Disease?
Healthy soils produce healthy crops. right? Nope. Although it would seem the very definition of soil health, this popular thinking does not match what plant…
Fine-Tuning with Soil Health; Water
In my last post, we found that soil health was not a major factor for crop yield but is useful in fine-tuning crop nutrient supply.…
Fine-tuning with Soil Health; Nutrients
Farming requires a lot of knowledge and skill. You have limited time and resources. It pays to know where your efforts will return the most…
Why Hasn’t Biological Nitrogen Fixation Fixed Nitrogen Scarcity in the World?
Most environments are limited by the lack of nitrogen. This explains why the world stays green and why it pays to follow the nitrogen. But…
Do soil health indicators indicate soil health?
There is a problem with how soil health indicators are being developed. We start with farmers using soil health practices, for instance, no-till, crop rotation,…
Always Follow the Nitrogen
“Follow the money” is a reliable tactic for figuring out people's actions. Money is scarce, people want it, and do stuff with it. For plants,…