West Coast Nut June 2019

Continued from Page 23
according to informed guesses from orchard
removal companies and crop advisors who work
with large numbers of growers, is that the current
adoption rate of WOR ranges between 5 percent and
10 percent in the San Joaquin Valley, whereas it is
close to 0 percent in the Sacramento Valley.)
Online Survey Results: Benefits
We first asked respondents (n = 125) to chose all
possible benefits of whole-orchard recycling from
a list of options, and then we asked them to identify
what they thought was the main benefit. When
asked to “choose all that apply,” respondents spread
their answers nearly equally across all the options,
ranging from carbon sequestration to yield increases.
But when asked to name only the “most important
benefit,” respondents clearly focused on two factors
(Figure 1a, see page 24): improving soil physical
properties (chosen by 30 percent) and providing the
most economical option to comply with air quality
regulations (21 percent).
When we examined only the subset of respondents
who had actually practiced WOR (n = 33),
opinions shifted in an interesting way (Figure
1b, see page 24). Economical compliance with air
quality regulations was their number one perceived
benefit of WOR (27 percent), followed by soil physical
properties (21 percent). Not a single one of these
WOR adopters thought that soil nutrient status was
the main benefit, perhaps due to their experience
with higher nitrogen demand in recycled orchards.
Three adopters (9 percent) said that the practice had
no major benefits, indicating that not everyone had a
positive experience with WOR.
Figure 1a. All respondents (n = 125)
Soil nutrient
status
Soil biological
properties
Carbon
sequestration
12%
6%
9%
No major
benefits
4%
Figure 1b. WOR adopters only (n = 33)
Soil nutrient
status
0%
Carbon
sequestration
9%
No major
benefits
9%
Don’t know
3%
30%
Soil physical
properties
Don’t know
3%
21%
Most
economical
compliance
27%
14%
Increase
yields
Most
economical
compliance
Online Survey Results: Drawbacks
Similarly to the benefit questions, we asked
respondents to choose all perceived drawbacks of
WOR from a list, and we then asked them to select
the single most important drawback. Answers to
the “choose all” question (not shown) had a similar
breakdown to the “single most important” question.
Opinions on the most important drawback are
shown for all respondents (Figure 2a, see page 25)
and for WOR adopters only (Figure 2b, see page 25).
The most notable difference between all respondents
versus only adopters was how they perceived
the issue of disease in the replanted orchard. Disease
risk was the number one concern for respondents in
general, but for respondents who had actually tried
WOR, disease dropped to a fourth-place tie. Our
data cannot clarify the direction of cause and effect
(growers may be more likely to try WOR if they have
no major disease concerns), but it does seem that
WOR adopters have not generally noticed increases
in disease so far.
Soil biological
properties
15%
21%
Soil physical
properties
15%
Increase
yields
Figure 1. Most important benefit of whole-orchard recycling in almonds, according
to online survey participants in December 2018. (Answers were mutually exclusive;
respondents could only pick one)
Concerns about expense were common among all participants (22
percent named it as the top drawback). Among adopters, expense
was an even bigger concern (27 percent) than among non-adopters.
A variety of other drawbacks were consistently mentioned (woody
debris; poor nitrogen (N) status; lack of equipment; etc.), and only
24
West Coast Nut June 2019