Joyful Farms - Hemet, CA
August 2013 - November 2014
ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION
Joyful Farms is located in Hemet, CA, 88 miles east of Los Angeles in Riverside County. The 500 acre farm grows 37 types of Chinese vegetables, including several varieties of bok choy, mustard greens, & snow pea tips. Aidy Yang, a farm consultant, was hired to remediate the soil at Joyful Farms & increase their crop yields.
PHASE ONE - Assesment
The land suffered from hardpan, standing water and nutrient depletion. The overuse of chemical fertilizers led to a decrease in the soil’s productivity. The soil only had an organic matter content of 0.85 on a 5.0 scale.
Aidy’s goal was to bring the soil’s organic matter up between 2.3 to 2.6, while continuing crop production. Using 80’s Special and soil amendments, Joyful Farms can expect to see an increase in yields and soil health in as soon as three months.
Figure 1 -- Depleted soil prior to the application of 80's Special
PHASE TWO - Application
Soil organic matter is the foundation of a healthy and productive soil. Water availability in the soil, fertility and soil compaction are all dependent on the soil’s organic matter content. Composting helps regenerate poor soil. Composting encourages the production of beneficial micro-organisms which in turn converts organic matter into dark humus. Adding 80’s Special to compost greatly accelerates the creation of humus.
Figure 2 - Compost treated with 80's Special is spread across farmland.
PHASE THREE - Recovery
The average harvest on this field is eight (8) pallets, forty-two (42) boxes per pallet. In a normal year there would be three (3) to four (4) harvests. As of November 24, 2014 there have been seven (7) harvests on this field, twice the annual production prior to the introduction of 80’s Special. This field is a work in progress. The field has empty patches of land and the crop is not as uniform as it will be in the future.
Figure 3 - Line #2 Recovering after 80's Special application.
RECOVERY
Joyful Farm now harvests daily thanks to the increase in crop production. 80’s Special was administered every three to four weeks.
3 Months Later
Figure 6 - Long Line #6
Figure 5 - Long Line #4; Uniform and dense growth
Long Line #4. We have uniformity of crops, no patches, no standing water and a harvest that has come in five (5) days early. These mustard plants produced a yield that was 1.25 times greater than normal. Long Line #4 was treated with 80’s Special three months before being applied to Long Line #2 and #6.
Long Line #6 had severe hardpan and suffered from severe chemical fertilizing. Compost with 80’s Special was administered. Aidy supervised and directed the remediation of the land. The field was plowed, a disc was used, hiller, tiller and seeding. Nothing out of the ordinary was done, except attention to detail reading the soil report and administering 80’s Special every 3 weeks along with additional nitrogen.
