Compost tea effects on greenhouse gas emissions, soil carbon sequestration in a Sonoma County pome fruit orchard.
This Project has an Update in progress.
Project Overview
Basics
Compost tea effects on greenhouse gas emissions, soil carbon sequestration in a Sonoma County pome fruit orchard.
Implementation
Organic amendments are reported to improve soil health and reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This project will evalaute the impacts of adding actively aerated compost tea from dairy cow manure vermicompost on soil health, GHG emissions and crop yields. Soil sampling and gas exchange sampling will be conducted to measure change in total organic carbon, bulk density, water infiltration rate, CO2, CH4 and N2O fluxes from each treament and control fields. We hypothesize that actively aerated compost tea will be measurably increasing the soil carbon pool and releasing less CO2, CH4, and N2O to the atmosphere over the life of the project than the Control.
2019
2020
2023
10/28/2021
Project Attributes
Census Tract Income
None
Direct Benefits to Disadvantaged Communities (DACs)
None
EnviroScreen
None
Free and Reduced Lunch
None
Indirect Benefits to Disadvantaged Communities (DACs)
None
Tribal Engagement (True/False)
None
Tribal Engagement
None
Location
Organizations
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| Partners | |
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| State Assembly Voting District | |
| State Senate Voting District |
Contacts
Performance Measures
Expected Performance Measures
| People Participating in Activity | None | Not Provided |
| People Participating in Activity | Constituent Type: Agricultural Community Primary Service Type: Workshops | 20 |
Reported Performance Measures
No annual Performance Measure accomplishments entered for this Project.
| No accomplishments to report for: | |
| Year(s): | 2020-2021 |
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| Explanation: | Three different sampling strategies will be deployed over the project period to address the monitoring objectives of the study. 1) Monthly measurements conducted with consistent procedures and timing in order to resolve the full seasonal range of soil treatments and farm management, as well as soil temperature and moisture levels. 2) Intensive sampling immediately following application of the soil treatment each August/September. This will involve measurements approximately twice weekly, until equilibrium emissions have been reached. 3) Intermittent sampling associated with particular environmental conditions such as immediately following rain events or during extreme temperature events. |
Financials
Budget
| Comment: | None provided |
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Reported Expenditures
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California Healthy Soils Initiative (CDFA) | $0.00 | $31,410.04 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $31,410.04 |
| Grand Total | $0.00 | $31,410.04 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $31,410.04 |
| Note: | None provided |
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Project Themes
Project Themes
We will test aerated compost tea derived from dairy cow manure vermicompost. This project will sample the effect that practice has on soil organic matter, total organic carbon, and the exchange of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapor, between the orchard floor and the atmosphere, and crop yields. The practices will be compared to a Control plot where no compost tea is applied.
The demonstration project will test the following scenarios:
1. No actively Aerated Compost Tea (Control)
2. Actively Aerated Compost Tea from dairy cow manure vermicompost (Treatment)
We hypothesize that by applying actively aerated compost tea to the soil, we can restore soil microbial function by providing both micronutrients and the organic chelating agents that make them available. Organic teas also contain long-chain carbon molecules which provide carbon and oxygen for soil microbes, including mycorrhiza. The mycorrhizal hyphae, in turn, greatly extend the root systems of plants, increasing their nutrient uptake, respiration, tolerance to weather extremes and possibly conferring some disease resistance.
Gabriel Farm is a known innovator. Their willingness to experiment and test practices, their reputation in the community as an active small family farm, and their central location in the Sonoma County apple region were instrumental in choosing Gabriel Farm for this demonstration project. The issues that Gabriel Farm faces in relation to soil health and orchard floor management are not unique. Soil health concerns are key issues among orchardists throughout the north coast region and the state.
Project Details
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