Here's an article from Western Farm Press on Pistachio's

Here is the article John Miller sent me confirming information on Pistachio blanks occurring at 20 to 30% state wide in California. http://westernfarmpress.com/tree-nuts/rising-some-tough-challenges-california-pistachio-growers-wrap-successful-season As a reminder of our client in California that we just posted a blog story on his acreage producing an additional 600 pounds of nuts above and beyond his remaining acreage not treated with our protocol. His trees treated with our TerraPro protocol averaged less then 5%, actually 3 - 4.8% http://www.soilsecretsblog.com/2015/09/good-news-on-another-success-story-that.html

Michael Martin Meléndrez
Managing Member of Soil Secrets LLC
www.soilsecrets.com

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Fertilizers formulated for alkaline soils of the Southwest

Recently I was in an Albuquerque retail nursery where a fertilizer was being sold that stated it was formulated for alkaline soils of the Southwest. It contained high levels of iron and sulfur, plus the N, P and K major nutrients. Do any of the readers care to comment on this type of product? Pros, Cons, etc. I have my take on it, but I'll entertain what you want to say about it. Michael Martin Meléndrez

Soil Health: Level 2 - Description of Terms (Carbon Compounds)

The Labile Carbon is also known as the 'Rapid Cycling Carbon' and its composed of all the Soil Organic Matter that is dead and actively decomposing. It's benefit to the soil is that it provides a source for minerals that are being recycled as potential plant nutrients, so in a sense it's Nature's fertilizer. Active Carbon also known as Reactive Carbon is more complex than the Labile Carbon in that its composed of all the dead and actively decomposing organic matter plus all the living soil microbial community that will eventually die and begin decomposing. For example, the hyphae of mycorrhizae only live about 5 to 7 days before they die and start to decompose, while the fungus organism itself may live far longer. Recalcitrant Carbons are the Humic substances made up of complex organic chemistry, some of which is inert and some of which is very reactive and are powerful biologics, such as the Humic Acids. Recalcitrant Humic substances are known in la

Understanding the Importance of Cation Exchange Capacity

I was recently asked to provide a simplified explanation on the importance of Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) values. My Response: CEC is the ability of a soil to hold onto plant nutrients. The finer the particle size the higher CEC value, generally speaking. For example sand particles are course and visible to the naked eye, where as clay particles are fine and are not visible to the naked eye. So clay will have a higher CEC value than sand. It is obvious to most of us that sand cannot hold onto water or nutrients as well as a soil with a finer texture. Therefore, soils rich in Clay and Loam size particles are universally recognized as being better for farming - CEC explains this. The numerical value for CEC represents how much nutrition can be held by a given amount of soil. For example one pound of a clay loam soil with a CEC value of 20 will hold 4 times as many nutrients as a sandy soil with a CEC value of 5. 20/4 = 5 . It's all about math, for example Nitrogen in

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