Soil  Quality  Network  2014  Practical  Soil  Health  for  Farmers  

                     Washington  State  University  NWREC                                                      Mount  Vernon,  WA                          

Thursday,  February  13  More  information  and  registration:  http://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/node/175840  

 Time   Session        7:45  am   Coffee  and  Tea/Registration  Opens      8:15  am   Welcoming  Remarks    8:30  am   Understanding  Soil  Quality  and  What  it  Means  on  the  Farm       David  Granatstein  is  a  Sustainable  Agriculture  Specialist  with  the  WSU  Center  for  Sustaining  Agriculture  and     Natural  Resources  in  Wenatchee,  where  he  has  conducted  a  number  of  studies  on  soil  quality.      

  He  will  introduce  the  concept  of  soil  quality,  key  principles  and  practices,  and  provide  some  examples  of  what     we  do  and  don’t  know  about  the  topic.      9:00  am   Soil  Quality  and  Resilience  in  Agriculture?       Chad  Kruger  is  the  Director  of  the  WSU  Center  for  Sustaining  Agriculture  &  Natural  Resources  and  works  on     climate  change  and  renewable  energy  issues.    

  His  talk  will  focus  on  the  need  to  investigate  the  relationship  between  improving  soil  quality  and  the  capacity     for  resiliency  and  adaptation  to  environmental  stress  in  agriculture.  

9:30  am   Life  in  the  Soil:  Earthworms,  Bacteria,  Fungi     Doug  Collins  is  an  extension  faculty  member  with  WSU’s  Small  Farms  Program.  His  extension  programs  and     research  focus  on  soil  quality  and  fruit  and  vegetable  production  for  small  farms.  He  also  serves  on  the  board     of  directors  for  the  Tilth  Producers  of  Washington.  

  Soil  ecosystem  engineers,  litter  shredders,  and  decomposers  shape  soil  structure  and  drive  nutrient     availability.  The  structure  of  the  soil  food  web  also  can  also  be  a  valuable  indicator  for  soil  quality.  This     presentation  will  focus  on  groups  of  organisms  and  how  management  practices  influence  their  activity.      10:00  am   Coffee  Break    

 10:20  am     Managing  Soil  Microbiology  for  Disease  Control  and  System  Resilience       Mark  Mazzola  is  a  Research  Plant  Pathologist  with  the  USDA  ARS    Tree  Fruit  Research  Laboratory  in           Wenatchee,  Washington.    He  holds  faculty  appointments  in  the  Department  of  Plant    Pathology  and  the         Department  of  Crop  &  Soil  Sciences  at  Washington  State  University.    

    His  talk  will  focus  on  the  use  of  Brassicaceae  seed  meals  for  control  of  soil-­‐borne  pathogens,  and  the           creation  of  long-­‐term  resilience  and  a  disease  suppressive  soil  environment  in  an  orchard  system.        

 

     

10:50  am   Panel:  New  Ideas  in  the  World  of  Soil  Quality     Biochar     Biotic  Fertilizers     Biosolids    

11:40  am   Q  &  A  Session  with  Panel  Members  and  Previous  Speakers    

 12:00   Lunch  and  Introduction  of  the  new  WSU  Front  Yard  Farm    1:00  pm   Get  Your  Hands  Dirty           Station  1:  Aggregate  Stability,  Compaction,  and  Water  Infiltration  -­‐  Cory  Owens,  NRCS  

  Station  2:  Visual  Soil  Assessment:  Soil  Texture  and  Structure  -­‐  Nick  Andrews,  OSU    

  Station  3:  Soil  Health  Cards  and  other  Tools  -­‐  Teresa  Matteson,  Benton  SWCD      2:30  pm   Local  Research  and  Benefits  of  Cover  Crops  -­‐  Chris  Benedict  

     3:14  pm   Biosolids  Compost  Use  on  Vegetable  Seed  Crops,  Potatoes,  and  Small  Grains       Lindsey  du  Toit  is  a  Vegetable  Seed  Pathologist  in  the  Department  of  Plant  Pathology  at  WSU,  and  she     specializes  in  the  epidemiology  and  management  of  diseases  affecting  vegetable  seed  crops  in  the  Pacific     Northwest.  Caitlin  Price  Youngquist  is  a  graduate  student  in  the  Department  of  Crop  and  Soil  Sciences  at  WSU.  

  As  part  of  an  ongoing  research  trial,  biosolids  compost  produced  by  the  Town  of  La  Conner  was  applied  at     various  rates  on  potatoes,  wheat,  barley,  and  spinach  seed  during  the  2012  and  2013  growing  seasons.     Impacts  on  soil  quality,  and  crop  yield  and  quality  were  measured.    4:00  pm   Compost  Use  on  the  Farm  -­‐  Panel  moderated  by  Andrew  Corbin    

4:45  pm   Q  &  A  with  speakers  and  open  discussion:  where  do  we  go  from  here?  

 5:00  pm     Adjourn