West Coast Nut September 2019

Continued from Page 72
our plants. They weather and mine nutrients all the time
to make them available for our trees to drink. Detritus,
incorporated into the orchard floor becomes future crops'
organic matter. “Organic Matter (OM)” is the net that
keeps structure, stabilizes nutrients, sequesters carbon
dioxide and holds water in our soils. Increasing OM is an
ongoing process.
In the fall, most of my farmers apply decent amounts of
compost to their orchards. Many of them are now incorporating
cover crops into their middles. Treating this as a
two-step approach to building soil organic matter is a huge
benefit to creating better and more active soil with more
benefit than either of them separately. More active and
fertile soil helps ensure our trees have the building blocks
they need to flourish.
Carbon
Why? Carbon. We always talk about 16 nutrients critical
to plant health. Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium
(K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), sulfur (S), are the
big 6 right? Well, if those are the big 6 we seldom reference
the humungous 3. C,H, and O. Like the human body,
carbon, hydrogen and oxygen comprise almost all of a
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living tree by weight.
In a message from Jay Hayek, an Extension Specialist
from Illinois with the Forestry Department, he quoted
Dr. Jeff Howe:
“It varies by species and other factors; however, it
is often reported that live trees are approximately 50
percent water by weight and 50 percent carbon (ovendried
weight).More precisely:
“Dry (moisture-free) wood is about 48-50 percent
carbon, 38-42 percent oxygen, 6-7 percent hydrogen
and a number of other elements, such as nitrogen and
sulfur in very small percentages. These percentages are
based on the weight of the elements as a percentage of
dry wood mass. Living trees, however, are very wet. In
fact, although there can be great variation between tree
species (and seasonally), a living tree may be made up
of more than two thirds water by mass. Thus, a living
tree is made up of 15-18 percent carbon, 9-10 percent
hydrogen, and 65-75 percent oxygen by mass.” Source:
Jeff Howe, PhD
We spend so much time trying to get the 16 right
that we let carbon slip through the cracks. Our trees
“breathe” carbon dioxide from the air and assimilate
carbon upstairs. But downstairs, they need the love as
well. And all that soil biology is depending on it.
Do the Math
Lets do the math: 3 tons of quality compost will
cost you about $120 per acre. By quality, I mean that
it has been cured for at least 1 year (more if you can
get it). When it arrives and you lift the tarp or open
the gate, make sure it doesn’t wreak of ammonia. That
isn’t cured compost. It can do more harm than good to
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"We always talk about 16
nutrients critical to plant
health. Nitrogen (N), phosphorus
(P), potassium (K),
calcium (Ca), magnesium
(Mg), sulfur (S), are the big
6 right? Well, if those are
the big 6 we seldom reference
the humungous 3. C,H,
and O."
74
West Coast Nut September 2019