Extension researchers in Arizona and California are working with a Norwegian company to make marginal soils arable. In Yuma, Ariz., where the soil on one research farm is akin to beach sand, the system is bearing some fruit.
Robert Masson, Extension researcher with the University of Arizona who’s leading the Yuma project, says the “junkyard” soil of the mesa farm where Desert Control is studying its liquid natural clay (LNC) helps sandy soils hold water better.
Watermelons on the university farm were recently harvested and studied for their size and sugar content. Bell peppers were looked at for their marketability and signs of plant stress, Masson said.
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“We learned a lot about how plants take up water,” Masson said. “We have soil sensors throughout the whole field."
In the control plots without Desert Control’s LNC product, Masson said they could not put on enough water to avoid plant stress. This was particularly evident at stand establishment with the transplanted bell peppers, according to Masson.
Ole Kristian Sivertsen, president, and CEO of Desert Control, told an audience of growers who visited the Yuma plot that this is the first U.S. location to test the LNC. The company first commercialized the process in the United Arab Emirates and is now looking to do the same in the United States. Studies with the universities of Arizona and California look to validate the technology and replicate its successes.
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Sivertsen said the company spent four years independently validating the process in the UAE and is now looking to see if what they learned there is transferable to conditions in the United States. Still, Desert Control is looking at a five-year process to study the technology at Yuma, with similar plans to study it at the UA research facility in Maricopa, at UC Riverside, and at California State University, Fresno.
“We’re not necessarily going to need four or five years here to validate before we can make this available, because what we are looking for is, does this validate transferability of results that have been achieved in other locations,” he said.
Masson says the idea of improving the water-holding capabilities in certain soil types and “banking” this water for crop use, is intriguing and worthy of more study.
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