1 00:00:00,001 --> 00:00:00,720 Gabrielle LaTora: We've got Dr. 2 00:00:00,720 --> 00:00:03,520 Gabrielle LaTora: Melanie Stock from Utah State University. 3 00:00:03,520 --> 00:00:06,480 Gabrielle LaTora: We have a short video to introduce you, and then Dr. 4 00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:12,480 Gabrielle LaTora: Stock, the floor will be yours to share your screen and share all of your great information with us. 5 00:00:12,560 --> 00:00:13,520 Melanie Stock: Sounds great. 6 00:00:13,520 --> 00:00:14,560 Melanie Stock: Thanks. 7 00:00:14,340 --> 00:00:14,740 Bethany Harris: Dr. 8 00:00:14,740 --> 00:00:22,740 Bethany Harris: Melanie Stock is an associate professor and extension specialist at Utah State University, where she directs the Small Farms Lab. 9 00:00:22,740 --> 00:00:33,380 Bethany Harris: A soil scientist focused on high-value crops and water use efficiency, she's published guidance specifically on growing cut flowers under drought and heat conditions. 10 00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:40,559 Bethany Harris: From the semi-arid west, she brings tips and tricks for keeping flowers thriving when the weather turns hot and dry. 11 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:41,760 Melanie Stock: Aw, thank you. 12 00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:44,000 Melanie Stock: That was such a wonderful introduction. 13 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:46,720 Melanie Stock: I'm going to go ahead and share my screen here 14 00:00:47,060 --> 00:00:48,820 Melanie Stock: Alrighty. 15 00:00:48,820 --> 00:00:50,739 Melanie Stock: And just position zoom. 16 00:00:50,739 --> 00:00:52,820 Melanie Stock: It always likes to switch it up. 17 00:00:52,820 --> 00:00:53,780 Melanie Stock: Alright. 18 00:00:53,780 --> 00:00:56,820 Melanie Stock: So preparing cut flowers for drought and heat. 19 00:00:56,820 --> 00:00:57,940 Melanie Stock: Tips and tricks. 20 00:00:57,960 --> 00:00:59,079 Melanie Stock: from the desert. 21 00:00:59,079 --> 00:01:07,400 Melanie Stock: So I'm really excited to be able to share some of the the things that have worked for us here and I'll spend a little bit of time too discussing 22 00:01:07,540 --> 00:01:12,740 Melanie Stock: that we are on different sides of the country, but there's so we have so much more in common than we have different. 23 00:01:12,740 --> 00:01:17,220 Melanie Stock: So I hope you find at least one tip in here that is helpful for you. 24 00:01:17,220 --> 00:01:20,820 Melanie Stock: And of course, put your questions in the chat 25 00:01:20,760 --> 00:01:24,280 Melanie Stock: Chances are if you have a question, someone else in the audience does too. 26 00:01:24,280 --> 00:01:26,920 Melanie Stock: And I think that's often when we learn the most. 27 00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:29,080 Melanie Stock: So, alrighty. 28 00:01:29,320 --> 00:01:36,760 Melanie Stock: So first off, just an agenda today, I divided the tips into a couple different a few different topics here 29 00:01:36,700 --> 00:01:45,420 Melanie Stock: And so the first thing I want to spend time on is not something to just immediately do when there's heat and drought, but just something to be thinking about all the time. 30 00:01:45,420 --> 00:01:47,740 Melanie Stock: And that is how can we build 31 00:01:47,740 --> 00:01:53,100 Melanie Stock: more resilient soils so that they can stand up to these challenging conditions. 32 00:01:53,100 --> 00:01:58,860 Melanie Stock: And in my view, it all comes down to organic matter and a really healthy soil structure 33 00:01:58,760 --> 00:02:00,680 Melanie Stock: So I want to spend time on that. 34 00:02:00,680 --> 00:02:12,600 Melanie Stock: And then we've been doing some research on both mulching and irrigation, as well as protected cultivation, as ways to help alleviate the heat and the amount of water being used. 35 00:02:12,060 --> 00:02:15,980 Melanie Stock: So because we are almost always in a drought, and then some years are worse drought. 36 00:02:15,980 --> 00:02:18,140 Melanie Stock: So a lot of our work revolves around that. 37 00:02:18,140 --> 00:02:20,939 Melanie Stock: And then lastly, I I wanted to say too that 38 00:02:21,140 --> 00:02:29,060 Melanie Stock: UGA is on it and they have all the slides, so there's no need for me to have these on my website, but I also have the slides on my website. 39 00:02:29,060 --> 00:02:32,739 Melanie Stock: I put a plug on Instagram to get you to that link too if you'd like 40 00:02:32,640 --> 00:02:36,959 Melanie Stock: And then in almost everything that I present, we have a fact sheet about that. 41 00:02:36,959 --> 00:02:39,760 Melanie Stock: And so you're welcome to take a look at our fact sheets as well. 42 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:43,920 Melanie Stock: They're posted on my lab website, smallfarmslab. 43 00:02:43,920 --> 00:02:46,799 Melanie Stock: com, under the fact sheets tab. 44 00:02:46,760 --> 00:02:48,040 Melanie Stock: I just want to make a quick note. 45 00:02:48,040 --> 00:02:52,280 Melanie Stock: So here I am in Utah, and here you guys are in Georgia. 46 00:02:52,280 --> 00:02:55,720 Melanie Stock: And so right off the bat, I'm going to say, it's hotter by you. 47 00:02:55,720 --> 00:02:57,800 Melanie Stock: You have a much longer season than us. 48 00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:01,560 Melanie Stock: And here at Utah State, I'm right on the Idaho border. 49 00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:08,560 Melanie Stock: And so we have everything from USDA hardiness zone 4, 5-ish down to here in St. 50 00:03:08,560 --> 00:03:11,200 Melanie Stock: George, which isn't too far from Vegas. 51 00:03:10,940 --> 00:03:13,980 Melanie Stock: And they're growing pomegranates and everything else. 52 00:03:13,980 --> 00:03:15,739 Melanie Stock: So a good zone 8-9-ish. 53 00:03:15,739 --> 00:03:17,900 Melanie Stock: So we cover kind of a span here. 54 00:03:17,900 --> 00:03:20,780 Melanie Stock: The top part of the state is semi-arid. 55 00:03:20,560 --> 00:03:27,040 Melanie Stock: And then the the southern part of the state is arid, so that's where Arches and all those national parks are. 56 00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:35,360 Melanie Stock: But we're at elevation, so we're about five thousand feet, and so it's really our elevation that dictates our conditions more than the hardiness zone. 57 00:03:35,460 --> 00:03:42,180 Melanie Stock: And I want to give a quick shout out to my lab, because these folks are the ones behind a lot of the work that I'm gonna share. 58 00:03:42,260 --> 00:03:47,940 Melanie Stock: So just looking at the forecast this week, again, we're not really that different, although 59 00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:53,760 Melanie Stock: So in terms of temperature, where you're in the high 80s to 90s, and so are we. 60 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:55,680 Melanie Stock: The difference of course is humidity. 61 00:03:55,680 --> 00:04:00,400 Melanie Stock: It feels much hotter in Georgia than it does up here in Logan, Utah 62 00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:08,880 Melanie Stock: But because we're at high elevation and we don't have humidity in the air, the solar radiation, the sunlight is extremely intense. 63 00:04:08,960 --> 00:04:13,840 Melanie Stock: And so it's so the surface temperature can get really hot because of that too. 64 00:04:13,840 --> 00:04:17,200 Melanie Stock: But really we're both battling challenging conditions. 65 00:04:17,200 --> 00:04:22,400 Melanie Stock: And so I hope that some of these things that we've that I'll share here resonate 66 00:04:22,460 --> 00:04:28,860 Melanie Stock: Okay, so conservation practices to save water and build soil resilience. 67 00:04:28,860 --> 00:04:31,419 Melanie Stock: Building resilient soils in my mind. 68 00:04:31,639 --> 00:04:34,280 Melanie Stock: all comes back to organic matter. 69 00:04:34,280 --> 00:04:41,639 Melanie Stock: And I think that term gets used a lot and most people know what it is, but organic matter is what gives soil a dark color. 70 00:04:41,639 --> 00:04:43,400 Melanie Stock: So it's plants and animals 71 00:04:43,560 --> 00:04:52,040 Melanie Stock: that have lived and died over time and decomposed and they result they their remains coat the individual grains 72 00:04:52,420 --> 00:04:53,140 Melanie Stock: of soil. 73 00:04:53,140 --> 00:04:56,020 Melanie Stock: So it's what gives topsoil a darker color. 74 00:04:56,020 --> 00:04:59,060 Melanie Stock: And with that organic matter comes so many things. 75 00:04:59,060 --> 00:05:02,100 Melanie Stock: Of course there's nutrients associated with it. 76 00:05:01,960 --> 00:05:06,120 Melanie Stock: But it also helps the soil develop just a wonderful structure. 77 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:08,520 Melanie Stock: And I like this picture of a core here. 78 00:05:08,520 --> 00:05:14,520 Melanie Stock: This is coming out of, we have a long term, we had a long-term peony study 79 00:05:14,460 --> 00:05:16,539 Melanie Stock: So that's a no-till situation. 80 00:05:16,539 --> 00:05:20,539 Melanie Stock: Here we are taking a core to measure some of the characteristics of soil. 81 00:05:20,539 --> 00:05:23,419 Melanie Stock: And you can see all those individual grains. 82 00:05:23,419 --> 00:05:26,860 Melanie Stock: You can see that there's little tiny pores in the soil. 83 00:05:26,860 --> 00:05:29,259 Melanie Stock: There's big pores in the soil. 84 00:05:29,060 --> 00:05:32,820 Melanie Stock: And that here, so for Utah, this is a dark soil, by the way. 85 00:05:32,820 --> 00:05:34,900 Melanie Stock: That's a nice brown one here. 86 00:05:34,900 --> 00:05:37,780 Melanie Stock: And so managing for organic matter. 87 00:05:37,860 --> 00:05:39,060 Melanie Stock: adding organic matter. 88 00:05:39,060 --> 00:05:49,700 Melanie Stock: I'm gonna talk about how to do that in the next slides here, but when it coats those particles like that and we allow the soil structure to develop, a lot of wonderful things happen. 89 00:05:49,700 --> 00:05:52,660 Melanie Stock: The water can infiltrate more quickly. 90 00:05:52,740 --> 00:05:55,220 Melanie Stock: And it can also drain better. 91 00:05:55,220 --> 00:06:00,980 Melanie Stock: So in something like a heavy clay soil, organic matter is always the answer. 92 00:06:00,760 --> 00:06:09,160 Melanie Stock: And I have a really silly cartoon right here, but what I like, and it's it's meant to represent all these little particles of soil. 93 00:06:09,039 --> 00:06:19,120 Melanie Stock: And when organic matter comes in, it actually coats those little tiny particles and it glues them into bigger aggregates or bigger chunks. 94 00:06:19,020 --> 00:06:23,420 Melanie Stock: And what that means is it allows water to travel through much more easily. 95 00:06:23,420 --> 00:06:27,820 Melanie Stock: It's I like to think of it as it creates a highway in the soil, right? 96 00:06:27,820 --> 00:06:33,660 Melanie Stock: So I could I could drive around and take all the back route back roads from city to city. 97 00:06:33,100 --> 00:06:41,260 Melanie Stock: And I would eventually get there, I'd have a beautiful trip, but it would take quite a long time, or I can hop on the freeway and get there really quickly 98 00:06:40,960 --> 00:06:42,159 Melanie Stock: Same thing with water. 99 00:06:42,159 --> 00:06:45,759 Melanie Stock: It can travel between all these individual particles in the soil. 100 00:06:45,759 --> 00:06:54,400 Melanie Stock: But if it can hop on the highway, these big pores that are created because organic matter is coating the grains and creating larger aggregates 101 00:06:54,539 --> 00:06:55,659 Melanie Stock: Best case scenario. 102 00:06:55,659 --> 00:06:58,699 Melanie Stock: That's a really good situation that happens. 103 00:06:58,699 --> 00:07:04,539 Melanie Stock: The other thing that allows to have happen is that the soil can store water better. 104 00:07:04,539 --> 00:07:08,379 Melanie Stock: And this actually I like to think about in terms of sand. 105 00:07:08,379 --> 00:07:13,740 Melanie Stock: So sand, we have sandy soils, we have no problem with infiltration and drainage, and actually 106 00:07:13,940 --> 00:07:20,100 Melanie Stock: It's the opposite end where it can be a bit challenging in that soil just doesn't want to hang on to water. 107 00:07:20,100 --> 00:07:25,220 Melanie Stock: It's like seeing it's kind of when sand sees water, it's some stranger down the street. 108 00:07:25,220 --> 00:07:27,140 Melanie Stock: There's just no attraction there 109 00:07:27,340 --> 00:07:35,180 Melanie Stock: But when we introduce organic matter, it can coat those particles and suddenly those particles can actually hang on to water a bit better. 110 00:07:35,180 --> 00:07:36,780 Melanie Stock: I shouldn't say suddenly, but 111 00:07:37,120 --> 00:07:39,919 Melanie Stock: It's there starts to be this attraction. 112 00:07:39,919 --> 00:07:41,840 Melanie Stock: So it works both ways. 113 00:07:41,840 --> 00:07:46,000 Melanie Stock: It helps clay soils by allowing us to infiltrate water better. 114 00:07:46,060 --> 00:07:53,259 Melanie Stock: store excuse me drain that water and then on the other end with sandy soils it helps hang on to that water in the root zone. 115 00:07:53,259 --> 00:08:00,860 Melanie Stock: So because having consistent soil moisture is very important for most cut flower crops other than the drought tolerant ones. 116 00:08:00,060 --> 00:08:05,100 Melanie Stock: When we don't when there's water stress, we start to see a lot of disorders develop. 117 00:08:05,100 --> 00:08:07,259 Melanie Stock: And I'll talk more about those later. 118 00:08:07,259 --> 00:08:11,500 Melanie Stock: And then another one is too, so in cut flower production, we really are asking 119 00:08:11,460 --> 00:08:13,220 Melanie Stock: asking a lot of our soils. 120 00:08:13,220 --> 00:08:21,780 Melanie Stock: We if I think about all of the biomass that gets created in a season, what we're all growing on our soils, we have to be able to replenish the bank. 121 00:08:21,780 --> 00:08:26,259 Melanie Stock: And I like to think of the soils as this wonderful nutrient bank. 122 00:08:26,100 --> 00:08:33,220 Melanie Stock: There's 14 mineral nutrients and it does a pretty darn good job with most of those, but we also got to replenish that bank. 123 00:08:33,220 --> 00:08:36,740 Melanie Stock: And so organic matter can be a wonderful way to do that too. 124 00:08:36,620 --> 00:08:45,820 Melanie Stock: And on this note, then reducing tillage is also helpful for because it takes so much time to create that beautiful structure in the soil. 125 00:08:45,660 --> 00:08:49,180 Melanie Stock: All right, I've yapped on a ton about organic matter in the soil. 126 00:08:49,180 --> 00:08:59,180 Melanie Stock: So now I want to talk about how to do it and how to do it sustainably because I think especially in a small farm situation, microfarms, there can be a tendency 127 00:08:59,339 --> 00:09:02,779 Melanie Stock: Great intentions, but maybe a little bit of loving it to death. 128 00:09:02,779 --> 00:09:05,740 Melanie Stock: So think of this as a marathon, not a sprint. 129 00:09:05,740 --> 00:09:07,740 Melanie Stock: Every year it gets a little bit better. 130 00:09:07,980 --> 00:09:12,940 Melanie Stock: Gradually adding organic matter, not adding inches at a time 131 00:09:13,220 --> 00:09:21,700 Melanie Stock: So I like to think of giving the soil a healthy diet so it's not just eating one thing, but rather finding organic matter from different sources. 132 00:09:21,720 --> 00:09:26,360 Melanie Stock: And with compost and manure, this can be a challenge, especially within high tunnels. 133 00:09:26,360 --> 00:09:31,320 Melanie Stock: So I know that you guys get a whole bunch more water than we do, and that helps flush. 134 00:09:31,060 --> 00:09:38,500 Melanie Stock: Salts and so forth out of the soil, but if it's underneath a high tunnel under plastic, it's really easy to build up on salts 135 00:09:38,500 --> 00:09:40,900 Melanie Stock: And there's a lot of salts in compost and manure. 136 00:09:40,900 --> 00:09:44,500 Melanie Stock: And that's because actually most plant nutrients count as a salt in the soil. 137 00:09:44,500 --> 00:09:47,540 Melanie Stock: And I'm happy to talk about that more later if you're interested. 138 00:09:47,200 --> 00:09:48,800 Melanie Stock: So I put this picture of me. 139 00:09:48,800 --> 00:09:51,200 Melanie Stock: This is me handling liquid dairy manure. 140 00:09:51,200 --> 00:09:54,560 Melanie Stock: And I have a huge smile on my face because I love working with manure. 141 00:09:54,560 --> 00:09:56,400 Melanie Stock: I am not anti-manure or compost. 142 00:09:56,400 --> 00:09:59,920 Melanie Stock: It's just that we have to be, it's a marathon, not a sprint. 143 00:09:59,920 --> 00:10:00,560 Melanie Stock: Being 144 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:03,240 Melanie Stock: conservative with those applications. 145 00:10:03,240 --> 00:10:06,839 Melanie Stock: Another option which I'll talk about here in a few slides is cover crops. 146 00:10:06,839 --> 00:10:08,920 Melanie Stock: Can be a great way to add organic matter. 147 00:10:08,920 --> 00:10:11,720 Melanie Stock: You don't have to worry about salt that way 148 00:10:11,700 --> 00:10:14,420 Melanie Stock: They can help scavenge nutrients and do a bunch of other things. 149 00:10:14,420 --> 00:10:16,180 Melanie Stock: Another slide on that coming. 150 00:10:16,180 --> 00:10:19,460 Melanie Stock: Same with the last two items here on the list. 151 00:10:19,460 --> 00:10:22,020 Melanie Stock: So this comes from a fact sheet. 152 00:10:22,040 --> 00:10:24,839 Melanie Stock: that I wrote and it's not specific to Utah. 153 00:10:24,839 --> 00:10:32,760 Melanie Stock: I went through all of the manure and compost samples that our lab produced and made a table of just what those what does it look like? 154 00:10:32,760 --> 00:10:35,080 Melanie Stock: What's the average NPK those 155 00:10:35,140 --> 00:10:40,580 Melanie Stock: three primary macronutrients for plants, what's the pH, what's the salinity associated with it. 156 00:10:40,580 --> 00:10:46,660 Melanie Stock: And it's in this case this compost type is divided by if it's manure based or something else. 157 00:10:46,240 --> 00:10:48,400 Melanie Stock: And looking at it by the animal. 158 00:10:48,400 --> 00:10:55,600 Melanie Stock: And so especially for those who are using high tunnels and so forth, I'd keep an eye on salinity here. 159 00:10:55,600 --> 00:10:58,320 Melanie Stock: And what I want to say is your magic number is two. 160 00:10:58,819 --> 00:11:01,060 Melanie Stock: You can go a little bit above that. 161 00:11:01,060 --> 00:11:09,459 Melanie Stock: It's not going to make the soil immediately shoot up, but I want to just give a kind of a reference point to show that 16 is really high. 162 00:11:09,459 --> 00:11:11,300 Melanie Stock: So is 11. 163 00:11:10,660 --> 00:11:13,140 Melanie Stock: But these are both coming from bird sources. 164 00:11:13,140 --> 00:11:17,940 Melanie Stock: And I've got a picture of my chickens down here, some poop from my coop. 165 00:11:17,940 --> 00:11:22,980 Melanie Stock: And I want to just point out that white that is on their manure is their urine 166 00:11:23,160 --> 00:11:25,000 Melanie Stock: And urine is what holds a lot of salt. 167 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:28,120 Melanie Stock: And it's what you can get the burn on the plants and so forth. 168 00:11:28,120 --> 00:11:31,000 Melanie Stock: But that's why poultry has a higher salinity. 169 00:11:31,360 --> 00:11:33,360 Melanie Stock: It's because the urine is in the urine. 170 00:11:33,360 --> 00:11:39,360 Melanie Stock: The main thing though too is that the NPK has about equal parts, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium. 171 00:11:39,360 --> 00:11:43,600 Melanie Stock: And so it's a great idea to use this to hit your phosphorus need. 172 00:11:42,959 --> 00:11:44,720 Melanie Stock: and then supplement the nitrogen. 173 00:11:44,720 --> 00:11:50,160 Melanie Stock: If you've applied enough to hit the nitrogen need, be overloading the soil with other things. 174 00:11:50,160 --> 00:11:56,720 Melanie Stock: Just some other little details here too, if you want to nerd out with me and get deeper into the nutrient 175 00:11:56,640 --> 00:11:57,200 Melanie Stock: plan. 176 00:11:57,200 --> 00:12:03,840 Melanie Stock: So absolutely can use these to help build organic matter in the soil, but do so conservatively. 177 00:12:03,840 --> 00:12:07,280 Melanie Stock: In following up with the talk of cover crops 178 00:12:07,259 --> 00:12:11,899 Melanie Stock: So it's this idea that we're growing something more for the soil than for ourselves. 179 00:12:11,899 --> 00:12:15,180 Melanie Stock: And each cover crop can do different things 180 00:12:15,060 --> 00:12:21,780 Melanie Stock: But one of the big things that they do is produce biomass that we can then return to the soil and add that organic matter. 181 00:12:21,780 --> 00:12:27,780 Melanie Stock: I have listed on the slide a bunch of other things that organic matter excuse me that cover crops 182 00:12:27,740 --> 00:12:32,940 Melanie Stock: can provide the ecosystem services that they can provide on our farms. 183 00:12:32,940 --> 00:12:38,300 Melanie Stock: If you're like me, I don't have a lot of land and I'm really into production and so I can't just take 184 00:12:38,339 --> 00:12:41,540 Melanie Stock: a whole bed out of production for a year to grow cover crops. 185 00:12:41,540 --> 00:12:45,540 Melanie Stock: So a common question I get is how do I incorporate them into my system? 186 00:12:45,540 --> 00:12:48,100 Melanie Stock: And so I have a few sneaky ways 187 00:12:48,060 --> 00:12:57,420 Melanie Stock: You might consider if there's an edge of the season when you're not growing as much, that can be a great time to sneak them in if you're rotating crops. 188 00:12:57,160 --> 00:13:05,080 Melanie Stock: If crops are already established, you could seed in cover crops, so you don't want them competing with the main crop, but they could be grown between crops potentially. 189 00:13:05,080 --> 00:13:07,640 Melanie Stock: There's been a lot of research coming out of the Midwest on that. 190 00:13:07,640 --> 00:13:11,880 Melanie Stock: I've also seen cut flower farms use it as an agritourism. 191 00:13:11,459 --> 00:13:11,940 Melanie Stock: Option. 192 00:13:11,940 --> 00:13:17,380 Melanie Stock: Here's a picture of crimson clover at our research farm and it's just it was absolutely gorgeous. 193 00:13:17,700 --> 00:13:18,980 Melanie Stock: Buckwheat is gorgeous. 194 00:13:18,980 --> 00:13:24,260 Melanie Stock: There's a lot of different options and I know UGA has so many resources for you. 195 00:13:24,260 --> 00:13:26,100 Melanie Stock: So definitely take a look at what 196 00:13:26,180 --> 00:13:28,500 Melanie Stock: UGA Extension has on cover crops. 197 00:13:28,500 --> 00:13:33,940 Melanie Stock: This is millet, by the way, different types of millet, which could also serve as a cut flower and for wreath making. 198 00:13:33,940 --> 00:13:37,139 Melanie Stock: And then I also wanted to plug the West, excuse me, SARE 199 00:13:37,240 --> 00:13:39,560 Melanie Stock: Has a lot of information on cover crops. 200 00:13:39,560 --> 00:13:45,560 Melanie Stock: And then this guy over at Washington State likes to go through all the research on cover crops and soil health. 201 00:13:45,560 --> 00:13:47,320 Melanie Stock: And then he has a blog 202 00:13:47,620 --> 00:13:49,140 Melanie Stock: about what it all means. 203 00:13:49,140 --> 00:13:52,580 Melanie Stock: And I and he writes it in a really easy to understand way. 204 00:13:52,580 --> 00:13:57,700 Melanie Stock: So if on Friday night, if you just want to start reading about cover crops, I recommend checking out his 205 00:13:57,920 --> 00:13:58,800 Melanie Stock: blog. 206 00:13:58,800 --> 00:14:04,720 Melanie Stock: And then a last comment here on cover crops is just that so they do take water. 207 00:14:04,720 --> 00:14:07,839 Melanie Stock: It can be hard to fit them in a season on a cut flower farm. 208 00:14:07,839 --> 00:14:12,560 Melanie Stock: And so Andrew McGuire who I was just talking about in the last slide, this comes from his blog. 209 00:14:12,920 --> 00:14:19,079 Melanie Stock: Where he was looking kind of through the literature at the use of crop residue and managing the residue. 210 00:14:19,079 --> 00:14:22,360 Melanie Stock: So if it's not disease, if it's disease, get it out of there. 211 00:14:22,360 --> 00:14:23,560 Melanie Stock: But if it's not 212 00:14:23,560 --> 00:14:27,800 Melanie Stock: It can be a great way to add organic matter to the soil. 213 00:14:27,800 --> 00:14:29,320 Melanie Stock: It's a renewable resource. 214 00:14:29,320 --> 00:14:32,040 Melanie Stock: It can protect that soil surface from erosion. 215 00:14:32,040 --> 00:14:33,560 Melanie Stock: It can help keep it cool. 216 00:14:33,560 --> 00:14:36,360 Melanie Stock: It can aid in infiltration. 217 00:14:35,600 --> 00:14:43,839 Melanie Stock: And when he went into the literature about cover crops and so forth, the biggest thing that he found mattered was about residue management. 218 00:14:43,839 --> 00:14:46,639 Melanie Stock: That's why this bar here is so big. 219 00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:51,360 Melanie Stock: And so whether that's coming from cover crops or from your crops, it both can help the soil. 220 00:14:51,360 --> 00:14:52,160 Melanie Stock: Alrighty. 221 00:14:52,160 --> 00:14:53,520 Melanie Stock: Last thing on soil. 222 00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:54,880 Melanie Stock: I'm sorry to talk so fast. 223 00:14:55,040 --> 00:14:58,080 Melanie Stock: There's so much I want to share with you and make sure we have time for. 224 00:14:58,080 --> 00:15:00,400 Melanie Stock: Hopefully these notes can just be also a good 225 00:15:00,540 --> 00:15:03,660 Melanie Stock: resource to come back to if one of these picks your interest. 226 00:15:03,660 --> 00:15:05,740 Melanie Stock: So a quick word on tillage. 227 00:15:05,740 --> 00:15:08,380 Melanie Stock: It's everyone has a different size farm. 228 00:15:08,380 --> 00:15:09,420 Melanie Stock: Everyone is 229 00:15:10,020 --> 00:15:19,380 Melanie Stock: got their own challenges and so I don't like to give a one size fits all approach but what I would say about tillage is that moderation and intention are key 230 00:15:19,560 --> 00:15:21,240 Melanie Stock: There are benefits to tillage. 231 00:15:21,240 --> 00:15:25,080 Melanie Stock: It can help incorporate that organic matter deeper into the root zone. 232 00:15:25,080 --> 00:15:27,560 Melanie Stock: If you're breaking ground, there's really no other there's 233 00:15:28,120 --> 00:15:36,440 Melanie Stock: situations where there's certainly no other way, but getting that organic matter deeper into the soil can give a a really fast boost to the situation. 234 00:15:36,440 --> 00:15:40,200 Melanie Stock: But there's drawbacks too and that mainly is that it destroys the soil structure. 235 00:15:40,200 --> 00:15:42,760 Melanie Stock: It breaks up those aggregates. 236 00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:52,920 Melanie Stock: And actually microbes are one of the when he in the analyses of what keeps them healthy in the soil, they're really sensitive to changes in pH and they're really sensitive to physical disturbance. 237 00:15:52,920 --> 00:15:55,640 Melanie Stock: So thinking about it from a soil health standpoint and 238 00:15:55,759 --> 00:16:03,120 Melanie Stock: Maybe considering conservation tillage that I'm not going to till every year, but maybe every couple years to get things mixed around 239 00:16:03,360 --> 00:16:13,840 Melanie Stock: Alrighty, so that's keeping the soil healthy and resilient to be able to withstand these challenging conditions that come up with heat and drought. 240 00:16:13,820 --> 00:16:17,180 Melanie Stock: The next thing is this I want to talk about mulches. 241 00:16:17,180 --> 00:16:23,500 Melanie Stock: I don't want to focus on plastic too much, but just this idea that having that soil surface covered with something 242 00:16:23,560 --> 00:16:30,840 Melanie Stock: can help with water savings and it can also help us control that root zone temperature that can add stress for plants. 243 00:16:30,840 --> 00:16:35,960 Melanie Stock: So plastic mulch, we use black plastic mulch early in the year to get the soil warming up 244 00:16:35,940 --> 00:16:40,340 Melanie Stock: It also does, it helps with weeds and so forth. 245 00:16:40,340 --> 00:16:48,660 Melanie Stock: Because we're in the desert, it we have about a 40-degree temperature swing from day to night, and so it helps us keep the soil warmer at night as well. 246 00:16:48,280 --> 00:16:57,160 Melanie Stock: We've done studies, this picture down in the middle, we were looking at black versus white plastic with dahlia to try to moderate that root zone temperature a bit. 247 00:16:57,140 --> 00:17:01,220 Melanie Stock: But then there's a lot of drawbacks to plastic as well. 248 00:17:01,220 --> 00:17:05,700 Melanie Stock: And so we in my lab, we've been getting really excited about natural mulches. 249 00:17:05,700 --> 00:17:07,140 Melanie Stock: What can we do? 250 00:17:06,860 --> 00:17:12,779 Melanie Stock: And some of these don't scale to large-scale farms, but I like to say be creative. 251 00:17:12,779 --> 00:17:17,419 Melanie Stock: Benefit of natural mulches so it comes from some once living source. 252 00:17:17,140 --> 00:17:22,660 Melanie Stock: Is that it can add organic matter to the soil, they can help save water, and they can moderate soil temperature. 253 00:17:22,660 --> 00:17:25,780 Melanie Stock: So keeping it cooler in the heat has been big. 254 00:17:25,780 --> 00:17:27,540 Melanie Stock: And so here's just a few pictures 255 00:17:27,660 --> 00:17:31,980 Melanie Stock: Wood chips, this is from Christmas trees, the boughs from Christmas trees. 256 00:17:31,980 --> 00:17:33,980 Melanie Stock: Over here, there's some straw. 257 00:17:33,980 --> 00:17:35,820 Melanie Stock: So nothing is a perfect fit. 258 00:17:35,820 --> 00:17:38,300 Melanie Stock: There's pluses and minuses to everything. 259 00:17:38,300 --> 00:17:41,740 Melanie Stock: So I tried to list a few of these things here, but 260 00:17:42,140 --> 00:17:48,780 Melanie Stock: What is around you that might be able to serve as a mulch source that could help break down and add? 261 00:17:48,780 --> 00:17:50,620 Melanie Stock: So a few years ago, our sheep 262 00:17:51,040 --> 00:18:01,440 Melanie Stock: specialist came to me and he said the the market for wool is terrible right now and there's always coarse wool that never can get used and right now even the good wool isn't selling. 263 00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:03,440 Melanie Stock: People are paying to landfill it. 264 00:18:03,440 --> 00:18:05,680 Melanie Stock: Can you use it with cut flowers? 265 00:18:05,380 --> 00:18:06,820 Melanie Stock: And I got excited. 266 00:18:06,820 --> 00:18:14,020 Melanie Stock: I said, I think so, because I know it's about 10% nitrogen, which is a lot, and that's the number one plant nutrient. 267 00:18:14,020 --> 00:18:20,180 Melanie Stock: And I was really curious if it could help keep the moisture in the soil so it could reduce evaporation. 268 00:18:19,600 --> 00:18:22,320 Melanie Stock: It could keep maybe it could keep it cooler too. 269 00:18:22,320 --> 00:18:31,840 Melanie Stock: So we did a trial with six warm season annuals a few years ago, and we looked at it in mulch, wool mulch versus bare soil 270 00:18:31,700 --> 00:18:37,380 Melanie Stock: And we simulated a drought where in this state, if when we're in droughts, we get restrictions on water use. 271 00:18:37,380 --> 00:18:38,419 Melanie Stock: So I simulated that. 272 00:18:38,419 --> 00:18:46,580 Melanie Stock: I purposely stressed these plants out to see who could perform and what was the difference with wool versus no wool. 273 00:18:47,100 --> 00:18:57,340 Melanie Stock: And so a few things, I'll just to summarize this study, we had at least 5% more moisture in the soil at any given time, which results that's hundreds of gallons. 274 00:18:56,800 --> 00:19:03,680 Melanie Stock: And it kept the root zone cooler by a good five to seven degrees, which can be a big deal for plants. 275 00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:06,560 Melanie Stock: Once the plants got big and their canopy closed. 276 00:19:06,640 --> 00:19:08,800 Melanie Stock: We didn't see that difference as much. 277 00:19:08,800 --> 00:19:14,480 Melanie Stock: But having that early when we're trying to get these plants established and they're actively growing was a huge help. 278 00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:17,440 Melanie Stock: Now I don't have yield data shown at all. 279 00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:19,120 Melanie Stock: I do want to point out 280 00:19:19,340 --> 00:19:22,059 Melanie Stock: This miniature carnation here on the right hand side. 281 00:19:22,059 --> 00:19:27,820 Melanie Stock: So on the left of the post it's grown in wool and on the right of the post it's grown in bare soil. 282 00:19:27,820 --> 00:19:29,900 Melanie Stock: You can just see the height difference there 283 00:19:29,860 --> 00:19:39,220 Melanie Stock: So for each of these six cut flowers, if you check out my website, we published fact sheets on production and we put in what the results were from this trial. 284 00:19:39,220 --> 00:19:44,179 Melanie Stock: And the spoiler alert is that everybody performed better in the wool. 285 00:19:43,679 --> 00:19:45,600 Melanie Stock: than on bare soil except for statice. 286 00:19:45,600 --> 00:19:47,760 Melanie Stock: Statice didn't care where it was. 287 00:19:47,760 --> 00:19:58,320 Melanie Stock: Now we're doing this study with perennials and we're we picked three and instead of simulating drought, we are monitoring soil moisture and irrigating based on need. 288 00:19:58,040 --> 00:20:02,280 Melanie Stock: And I know I'm running out of time, so I can't show you all my fun graphs. 289 00:20:02,280 --> 00:20:04,200 Melanie Stock: So I'll just quick say what happened. 290 00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:09,000 Melanie Stock: So we're looking at bare soil versus plastic landscape fabric versus wool 291 00:20:08,960 --> 00:20:10,640 Melanie Stock: Wool is in blue here. 292 00:20:10,640 --> 00:20:19,200 Melanie Stock: Red is bare soil, black is fabric, and this is temperature, where we really would like to stay below 80 when we can, the day to night temperature. 293 00:20:18,800 --> 00:20:26,800 Melanie Stock: And you can just see the wool, the soil temperature under the wool is just so moderate compared to these huge swings that we're getting elsewhere 294 00:20:26,500 --> 00:20:28,100 Melanie Stock: We measured a ton of things. 295 00:20:28,100 --> 00:20:32,980 Melanie Stock: This is looking at the growth of the three cover, or excuse me, the three crops with the different mulches. 296 00:20:32,980 --> 00:20:36,100 Melanie Stock: Long story short, more growth in wool. 297 00:20:35,860 --> 00:20:40,580 Melanie Stock: And then this is a table showing how much water we used during establishment last year. 298 00:20:40,580 --> 00:20:43,539 Melanie Stock: And we saved 30% water using wool. 299 00:20:43,539 --> 00:20:48,580 Melanie Stock: Fabric had about a 10% savings compared to bare soil. 300 00:20:48,720 --> 00:20:50,480 Melanie Stock: There's a lot of potential there. 301 00:20:50,480 --> 00:21:00,320 Melanie Stock: And then lastly, the soil nutrients, it varies, but it varies in the wool, but there are a heck of a lot of nutrients in that wool that get slowly released. 302 00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:05,600 Melanie Stock: So lastly, thinking about soil moisture and heat stress, what is it that those plants want? 303 00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:08,080 Melanie Stock: How can we make the best environment for them? 304 00:21:08,080 --> 00:21:10,720 Melanie Stock: Or knowing it's going to be hot and dry. 305 00:21:10,540 --> 00:21:17,020 Melanie Stock: Could we select crops that just take the heat and the sun and the drought, especially after establishment? 306 00:21:17,020 --> 00:21:20,860 Melanie Stock: So I have a list here of ones that really stand up. 307 00:21:20,660 --> 00:21:30,020 Melanie Stock: to it they can handle that soil moisture getting low they can handle the root zone getting hot another thing that we'll do if we know it's gonna be a bad water year is 308 00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:39,200 Melanie Stock: trying to select crops that we can put in early and they're going to finish early while we still have water because we depend almost entirely on snow melt. 309 00:21:39,040 --> 00:21:44,960 Melanie Stock: for our water so it's in and out and then what may whatever may happen with drought later in the year. 310 00:21:44,960 --> 00:21:48,080 Melanie Stock: Sometimes we're told we just won't have water after August 1st. 311 00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:49,280 Melanie Stock: So that's where that comes in. 312 00:21:49,280 --> 00:21:51,920 Melanie Stock: If you're interested we can talk more about early crops 313 00:21:52,040 --> 00:21:56,840 Melanie Stock: And then I want to just share, gosh, I just want to tell you all the things. 314 00:21:56,840 --> 00:22:00,280 Melanie Stock: This is an interesting one looking at sprinkler irrigation. 315 00:22:00,280 --> 00:22:03,160 Melanie Stock: It was of turfgrass and zinnia cut flowers. 316 00:22:03,160 --> 00:22:04,760 Melanie Stock: And the question was 317 00:22:05,140 --> 00:22:08,340 Melanie Stock: What happens if you water during the day versus at night? 318 00:22:08,500 --> 00:22:12,340 Melanie Stock: And everyone assumed that night irrigation is going to save water 319 00:22:12,760 --> 00:22:16,280 Melanie Stock: And what we found was that was not the case, actually. 320 00:22:16,280 --> 00:22:20,360 Melanie Stock: So nighttime we were up we were irrigating right before sunrise. 321 00:22:20,360 --> 00:22:21,799 Melanie Stock: So it was between 3 a. 322 00:22:21,799 --> 00:22:22,120 Melanie Stock: m. 323 00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:23,840 Melanie Stock: and 5 a. 324 00:22:23,840 --> 00:22:24,160 Melanie Stock: m. 325 00:22:24,320 --> 00:22:28,240 Melanie Stock: and then daytime we were watering in the afternoon so between 3 p. 326 00:22:28,240 --> 00:22:28,400 Melanie Stock: m. 327 00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:29,280 Melanie Stock: and 5 p. 328 00:22:29,280 --> 00:22:29,600 Melanie Stock: m. 329 00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:34,560 Melanie Stock: And what we found is that by actually irrigating during the day 330 00:22:34,640 --> 00:22:38,400 Melanie Stock: It helped cool the air and the soil and the zinnias really like that. 331 00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:42,240 Melanie Stock: So if we look at the yield, how many stems per square yard 332 00:22:42,100 --> 00:22:43,940 Melanie Stock: We did this for three years. 333 00:22:43,940 --> 00:22:47,380 Melanie Stock: The yield was much better when we irrigated them during the day. 334 00:22:47,380 --> 00:22:50,580 Melanie Stock: And for those of you who want more, I can't imagine that you do. 335 00:22:50,580 --> 00:22:53,220 Melanie Stock: But here's a soil moisture graph 336 00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:55,679 Melanie Stock: Throughout the summer one year. 337 00:22:55,679 --> 00:23:05,360 Melanie Stock: These two lines, the light color is day irrigated soils, the darker purple color is night irrigated soils, and you can see that soil moisture is drier 338 00:23:05,260 --> 00:23:07,020 Melanie Stock: when we're irrigating at night. 339 00:23:07,020 --> 00:23:09,500 Melanie Stock: And if you're interested in why that is, I can share a little bit. 340 00:23:09,500 --> 00:23:12,539 Melanie Stock: So this daytime irrigation, thinking about it, maybe around 5 p. 341 00:23:12,539 --> 00:23:12,700 Melanie Stock: m. 342 00:23:12,780 --> 00:23:13,260 Melanie Stock: when it's 343 00:23:13,440 --> 00:23:22,240 Melanie Stock: hot during the day, it can cool off that environment enough, and then you get into the night. So it was a surprising result from the study. 344 00:23:22,380 --> 00:23:32,140 Melanie Stock: Another thing about water is if we're in a drought and can't water everything all the time, there's a few phases that are really important to keep things hydrated. 345 00:23:31,860 --> 00:23:36,179 Melanie Stock: One is during establishment and the second one is during bloom. 346 00:23:36,179 --> 00:23:43,220 Melanie Stock: So when it goes the plant goes into bud through harvest is a really critical time to not stress out the plant 347 00:23:43,060 --> 00:23:49,060 Melanie Stock: That vegetative stage that happens between establishment and bloom is more tolerant. 348 00:23:49,060 --> 00:23:55,860 Melanie Stock: There's a lot of there's more to be said about that, but it can't be too stressed out because that can delay bloom 349 00:23:56,040 --> 00:24:02,040 Melanie Stock: Some ideas here are considering when you're planting, putting plants together by water demand. 350 00:24:02,040 --> 00:24:03,720 Melanie Stock: Who doesn't need as much water? 351 00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:05,720 Melanie Stock: Who is a heavy drinker? 352 00:24:05,540 --> 00:24:16,100 Melanie Stock: Put those guys together and then in a drought situation when we need to add more water, we can focus on the areas that really need more of it and not the entire farm necessarily 353 00:24:16,260 --> 00:24:20,900 Melanie Stock: Can talk more on that here if there's questions about it, but I know I need to finish up. 354 00:24:20,900 --> 00:24:24,179 Melanie Stock: So I had a little bit here on dahlia. 355 00:24:24,179 --> 00:24:27,380 Melanie Stock: These are our thirstiest drink, thirstiest crops. 356 00:24:27,060 --> 00:24:32,260 Melanie Stock: They are not a water savings crop, and we looked at are there any kind of ways we can save water with them? 357 00:24:32,260 --> 00:24:32,740 Melanie Stock: No. 358 00:24:32,740 --> 00:24:33,780 Melanie Stock: The answer is no. 359 00:24:33,780 --> 00:24:35,060 Melanie Stock: They need a lot of water. 360 00:24:35,060 --> 00:24:36,900 Melanie Stock: And end of story. 361 00:24:36,740 --> 00:24:39,220 Melanie Stock: Happy to talk more about this if you're interested. 362 00:24:39,220 --> 00:24:42,260 Melanie Stock: And then lastly the heat load help. 363 00:24:42,260 --> 00:24:48,980 Melanie Stock: So protected cultivation, the use of high tunnels or hoop houses to help advance the season, which helps 364 00:24:48,940 --> 00:24:51,820 Melanie Stock: keep things under cooler conditions. 365 00:24:51,820 --> 00:24:55,100 Melanie Stock: For us that also helps with water availability too. 366 00:24:55,100 --> 00:24:57,899 Melanie Stock: Here's pictures of our high tunnels at our research farm. 367 00:24:57,899 --> 00:25:02,139 Melanie Stock: And so this is a kit and this is a county agent down in south in St. 368 00:25:02,139 --> 00:25:02,779 Melanie Stock: George 369 00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:11,640 Melanie Stock: But these are our tunnels up at Utah State, and you'll notice they're an unconventional design, and this is a DIY design that our fruit and vegetable specialist developed 370 00:25:11,560 --> 00:25:16,040 Melanie Stock: And we've got the design plans on my website, as well as at tunnel. 371 00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:16,840 Melanie Stock: usu. 372 00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:17,960 Melanie Stock: edu. 373 00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:21,240 Melanie Stock: That well, what I really like about them, they're smaller. 374 00:25:20,900 --> 00:25:30,180 Melanie Stock: They're cheaper and they're heating structures in the wintertime, so we just put plastic on them, but that's easy to remove the plastic and then put shade cloth on. 375 00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:33,240 Melanie Stock: for the summer to try to get rid of that that heat load. 376 00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:37,400 Melanie Stock: And by not having plastic on all the time, we get more years of use out of it. 377 00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:39,560 Melanie Stock: And same with the shade cloth. 378 00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:44,760 Melanie Stock: We've also done a lot with low tunnels for adding shade and fabric and so forth. 379 00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:48,640 Melanie Stock: So a few things with shade that and there's great research out of Georgia. 380 00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:51,920 Melanie Stock: You guys are like the Mecca since you had you had Allan Armitage. 381 00:25:51,920 --> 00:25:53,360 Melanie Stock: I'm I'm in awe. 382 00:25:53,360 --> 00:25:57,440 Melanie Stock: So there's a lot of more information coming from your state, but a few just 383 00:25:57,840 --> 00:26:05,760 Melanie Stock: Things about shades, it doesn't change the air temperature, but it does reduce the sun load on our crops, which helps them be less stressed 384 00:26:05,540 --> 00:26:07,380 Melanie Stock: in the heat and the drought. 385 00:26:07,380 --> 00:26:15,140 Melanie Stock: It also can protect from wind, which has a drying effect, and it helps increase the stem length, both because of the shade. 386 00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:19,000 Melanie Stock: And because it can help with the wind, so they're not trying to hunker down. 387 00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:24,280 Melanie Stock: And there's a few things here about shade, and we actually did a study with a farm. 388 00:26:24,419 --> 00:26:26,980 Melanie Stock: Around here and she was looking at it with irrigation. 389 00:26:26,980 --> 00:26:30,740 Melanie Stock: She was actually able to cut her irrigation by 50% with shade. 390 00:26:30,740 --> 00:26:32,020 Melanie Stock: In summary 391 00:26:32,160 --> 00:26:38,560 Melanie Stock: Whew, that was a lot of information through a fire hose, but building organic matter in the soil is important. 392 00:26:38,560 --> 00:26:42,080 Melanie Stock: Use different sources for it when you can. 393 00:26:42,100 --> 00:26:48,100 Melanie Stock: grouping crops by water demand, thinking about what species would go together, that what needs more water, what doesn't. 394 00:26:48,100 --> 00:26:49,860 Melanie Stock: New transplants need water. 395 00:26:49,860 --> 00:26:56,659 Melanie Stock: When the flowers are in bloom they need water, but there might be ways to cut back when it's just that vegetative stage. 396 00:26:56,100 --> 00:27:03,780 Melanie Stock: And then alleviating the heat load by the planting timing and playing with trying to move it up or move it back potentially and then 397 00:27:04,140 --> 00:27:05,740 Melanie Stock: shade and so forth. 398 00:27:05,740 --> 00:27:09,900 Melanie Stock: With that, thank you all so much for listening to me. 399 00:27:09,900 --> 00:27:12,380 Melanie Stock: Thank you for looking at all those graphs with me. 400 00:27:12,380 --> 00:27:16,620 Melanie Stock: And thank you to UGA Extension for inviting me 401 00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:18,480 Melanie Stock: I have a QR code. 402 00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:22,320 Melanie Stock: It's a five-question survey that's really important to USU. 403 00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:23,520 Melanie Stock: If you could please fill it out. 404 00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:26,400 Melanie Stock: I'm going to throw the link in the chat as well. 405 00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:27,280 Melanie Stock: Please fill it out. 406 00:27:27,280 --> 00:27:31,120 Melanie Stock: It allows us to keep doing cut flower research. 407 00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:34,000 Melanie Stock: So with that, thank you, and I'd be happy to take a question. 408 00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:34,480 Gabrielle LaTora: Dr. 409 00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:35,920 Gabrielle LaTora: Stock, can you hear me? 410 00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:36,800 Melanie Stock: Yes. 411 00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:37,520 Gabrielle LaTora: Awesome. 412 00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:38,640 Gabrielle LaTora: Thank you so much. 413 00:27:38,640 --> 00:27:42,960 Gabrielle LaTora: It was really interesting to hear your perspective from Utah and how we can 414 00:27:43,040 --> 00:27:49,120 Gabrielle LaTora: translate those recommendations to Georgia because we certainly are dealing with heat and drought issues here too. 415 00:27:49,120 --> 00:27:53,520 Gabrielle LaTora: So we got two questions in the Q&A that basically are asking the same thing. 416 00:27:53,520 --> 00:27:56,160 Gabrielle LaTora: So I'm gonna combine them together 417 00:27:55,900 --> 00:28:01,260 Gabrielle LaTora: So if you are using a wool mulch, do you incorporate it into the soil after harvest? 418 00:28:01,260 --> 00:28:04,620 Gabrielle LaTora: Do you till it in, or can you save it for the next planting? 419 00:28:04,540 --> 00:28:13,740 Melanie Stock: That is a fantastic question, and I'm so grateful that you asked that because so our perennial study that's happening right now, we wanted to know that same question. 420 00:28:13,740 --> 00:28:15,980 Melanie Stock: How long does it persist? 421 00:28:15,360 --> 00:28:24,880 Melanie Stock: And so what we're looking at in that study, I had mentioned we're looking at plastic landscape fabric, bare soil, and wool, but within that, with the wool, we're looking at 422 00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:35,280 Melanie Stock: Adding it annually, so putting fresh raw wool down, pulling it up and putting fresh again, versus applying it once and seeing what happens for the duration of the study. 423 00:28:34,800 --> 00:28:39,760 Melanie Stock: And I'll say out here in Utah it doesn't break down as quickly and it's because we don't have as much water. 424 00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:42,960 Melanie Stock: So I think it would break down much more quickly in Georgia 425 00:28:43,019 --> 00:28:48,539 Melanie Stock: It is not a drawback of this is that it does not lend itself to tillage. 426 00:28:48,539 --> 00:28:53,019 Melanie Stock: So trying to incorporate it after a season, however much is left. 427 00:28:52,840 --> 00:28:54,520 Melanie Stock: I think it would be problematic. 428 00:28:54,520 --> 00:29:00,520 Melanie Stock: So it's really, I think it's best in a perennial situation where or in a no-tillage situation. 429 00:29:00,520 --> 00:29:06,280 Melanie Stock: You could also just pull off what's remaining if you did want to till, and that would be possible too 430 00:29:06,600 --> 00:29:07,960 Melanie Stock: Great question. 431 00:29:08,039 --> 00:29:08,760 Gabrielle LaTora: Perfect. 432 00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:09,559 Gabrielle LaTora: Thank you. 433 00:29:09,559 --> 00:29:12,919 Gabrielle LaTora: So we're going to go ahead and kick over to our next speaker, but Dr. 434 00:29:12,919 --> 00:29:15,080 Gabrielle LaTora: Stock, you got a couple questions in the chat. 435 00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:18,600 Gabrielle LaTora: So feel free to answer those if you have time. 436 00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:21,000 Gabrielle LaTora: And we really appreciate you. 437 00:29:20,860 --> 00:29:22,380 Gabrielle LaTora: Okay, thank you. 438 00:29:22,380 --> 00:29:23,899 Gabrielle LaTora: Thank you.