Making Soils Data Actionable Webinar Series
More soil tests and data are available to farmers than ever. While this can be empowering, it can also be confusing. New information on soil chemistry, biology, and physics can sometimes be difficult to translate into action. In this webinar series, we highlight projects across Washington that are using soil data to inform real, on-farm management decisions.
If you’ve been hit with soil data overload, this is the series for you. Farmers, agricultural advisors, extension staff, and decision makers are welcome. Listen to learn how to take action on soil data and learn about available resources.
Chemical
Adam Peterson, Senior GIS and Science Specialist, Thurston Conservation District
Adam talks about how technical service providers can demystify soil test results and translate them into accessible and actionable recommendations for on-farm nutrient management. Using Thurston Conservation District’s soil testing program as an example, Adam shares share efficient strategies for interpreting a large volume of tests while accounting for farm scale, fertilizer preferences, and crop-specific needs.
Resources
Soil Test Interpretation Guide (EC 1478), OSU
Soil Testing: A Guide for Farms with Diverse Vegetable Crops (EM050E), WSU
Nutrient Management for Sustainable Vegetable Cropping Systems in Western Oregon (EM 9165), OSU
The Nature and Properties of Soil
Estimating Plant-Available Nitrogen Release from Cover Crops (PNW 636), OSU/PNW Extension
Find more information about the Thurston Conservation District
Biological
Lindsey du Toit, Professor and Chair, Department of Plant Pathology, Washington State University
Lindsey shares two decades of research and extension on minimizing spinach seed losses to soilborne fungus. Learn from the Chair of the WSU Department of Plant Pathology about the important role that growers have played in doubling the spinach seed production ability of the Pacific Northwest.
Resources
Shedding light on races Fus oxysporum f sp spinaciae
A Soil Bioassay for Predicting the Risk of Spinach Fusarium wilt
Limestone-Mediated Suppression of Fusarium Wilt in Spinach Seed Crops
Putative Effector Genes Distinguish Two Pathogenicity Groups of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. spinaciae
Find more information about the Department of Plant Pathology at Washington State University
Physical
Troy Peters, Professor, Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Washington State University
In this grower-focused webinar, Troy discusses the importance of soil moisture data and the advantages and disadvantages of different types of soil moisture sensors. Troy explains more about how to interpret and use soil moisture sensor data to maximize profitable irrigation water management.
Resources
Practical Use of Soil Moisture Sensors for Irrigation Scheduling
Soil Health Report Generator
This webinar is a demo of the {soils} R package, designed for comprehensive soil health data visualization and reporting. See how we use R and Quarto to create customized, interactive reports to empower each participant in the State of the Soils Assessment to explore and understand their soil data. The {soils} package can be found here.
Resources
Adam’s Making Soils Data Actionable recording
20-min talk Parameterized Quarto reports improve understanding of soil health at posit::conf(2023)
R
RStudio Education: different starting points to begin learning R
R for Data Science (2ed): book by Wickham et al. (2023)
Quarto
Get Started with Quarto: intro and tutorial
FAQ RMarkdown to Quarto: for Rmarkdown users
20-min technical talk: Parameterized soil health reports with Quarto
Intermediate Quarto Workshop: Parameterized reports with Quarto
{soils}
{soils} package website: package documentation & tutorials
GitHub repository: source code and files