How do you cut your water use by a third, cut your nitrogen use in half, maintain your tomato yield and improve your fruit quality? “With patience, perseverance and by treating your soil like a living ecosystem–which it is,” says Jesse Sanchez.
Sanchez should know. He and Alan Sano have been experimenting with soil enhancements for 15 years on Sano Farms in Firebaugh. They believe they have hit upon a winning strategy—though their experiments continue.
Today, they grow 50 ton per acre tomatoes with half of the nitrogen (120 units) and a third less water than before. They also report fewer weeds and better tomato quality.
The soil organic matter (SOM)—the living portion of the soil that turns crop residue into minerals needed by growing plants—has gone from 0.5 percent to 3.0 percent, report Sano and Sanchez. “The soil is like day and night,” says Sanchez. “You can dig it with your hands,” he says, cupping a handful to prove his point.
So how do you transition largely inert soil into the ecological powerhouse found on Sano Farms?
Cover crops, reduced equipment passes, and subsurface irrigation have been key, according to Jeff Mitchell, UC Cooperative Extension specialist based at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center. These practices combine to feed and protect the soil microorganisms often ignored in agricultural systems. Mitchell has been coaching the Sano/Sanchez team for over 10 years, witnessing their progress and connecting them with like-minded farmers and organizations.
“Farmers sometimes worry that cover crops will compete with the cash crop for water and nutrients,” says Mitchell. “We’re starting to see at Sano Farms — looking long term—that the trade-offs might actually be favorable.”
Sanchez says he terminates the cover crop before the tomatoes are planted, leaving the dead residue to smother weeds and feed the soil microorganisms.
The SOM also builds the sponge that allows the farm to thrive on less water, says Zahangir Kabir, Soil Health Specialist with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). “A one percent increase in SOM builds your soil’s ability to hold water by 19,000 to 25,000 gallons per acre. Thus, calculating conservatively, Sano Farms’ fields hold 50,000 gallons of water more per acre than they did before.”
You can see this in action at Sano farms. “When it rains here the water soaks into the field. It stays put,” says Sanchez. “It doesn’t run off like some farms.”
Sanchez, who received a White House Champions of Change Award last summer, says he knows farmers resist change. “But we can’t stop change,” he says. “It’s all around us. If they (farmers) do change the way they work with their soil, they are going to like what they see.”
Sanchez will be a featured speaker at the second annual Latino Farmers Conference taking place on Nov. 15 at the Monterey Hyatt Regency. The event is free but registration is required.
Video from: NRCS California
Some people want to build better mousetraps. Jesse Sanchez wants to build better soil.
It’s been his goal, his passion, for a long, long time.
More than 20 years ago, when he was an employee of Sano Farms in Firebaugh, Calif., Sanchez asked his boss if he could experiment with cover crops (crops that keep cropland “covered” between the time a “cash crop” is harvested and the next one is planted) to see if they would improve the lower-producing areas of their fields.
But his boss said “no.” He didn’t believe cover crops would make a difference.
Undaunted, Sanchez continued pitching his idea until his boss finally acquiesced, allowing him to plant cover crops in one field. After just one season of cover cropping, Sanchez said the next cash crop was a thing of beauty – the crops were uniform, healthy and abundant.