The Dirt: A Blog.

Last month we had the pleasure of hosting Joy Youwakim, an agroecology scientist at Biome Makers, at our Potato Expo booth. If you haven’t heard of Biome Makers, they are an independent, third-party genomics company that offers a proprietary DNA-sequencing program that uses the world’s largest taxonomic database of over 10 million microorganisms. Using this […]

In a recent grower meeting, the grower was expressing frustration at the diminishing returns he was experiencing with his current soil health regimen. One of our sales representatives asked the grower if he had considered the biological impact of his soil fumigation program. The grower confessed that he had not. That led to our latest […]

In a recent article published in SpudSmart, I drew parallels between where we are in the potato industry today compared to where California’s strawberry industry was in the 1950s. Strawberries are very sensitive to verticillium – same as potatoes. With limited means to fight the disease, strawberry growers tried to outrun verticillium but ultimately had […]

I recently had three of my articles get published on Spud Smart.  You can access the articles below on the Spud Smart website. Or, you can stay here and read the very latest article below. June’s Article “Am I Willing to Share? Heck No, It’s My Competitive Advantage” July’s Article Incremental Yield Improvement Is Good, But […]

SpudSmart recently published another of my articles titled, “Does Soil Fumigation Have a Place in Regenerative Agriculture?” You can access the article here: Does Soil Fumigation Have a Place in Regenerative Agriculture? (spudsmart.com) or read on! DOES SOIL FUMIGATION HAVE A PLACE IN REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE? Over the past handful of months, I’ve attended a whole pile of […]

In case you missed it, SpudSmart recently published my article titled, “Reduced Irrigation Yet More Yield and Better-quality Potatoes”. You can access the article here: https://spudsmart.com/reduced-irrigation-yet-more-yield-and-better-quality-potatoes/ or read on! REDUCED IRRIGATION YET MORE YIELD AND BETTER-QUALITY POTATOES My favorite part of my job is learning from producers who speak personally about real challenges and real opportunities in […]

Happy National Ag Day! We’re proudly celebrating this year’s National Ag Day. National Ag Day recognizes and celebrates the abundance provided by American agriculture. Farmers are innovators committed to feeding us all and leaving a healthy world for future generations. The family of TriCal Group companies celebrate our farmers and are proud to be helping […]

Our aim is to help growers reach both their financial and regenerative agriculture goals. We believe soil health is the key to reach these goals and functional sustainability is the path. For decades, we have been able to make the case that soil fumigation with chloropicrin – the active ingredient in Strike fumigants – suppresses […]