Soil-Changing Farmers: Zack and Montica O'Crowley

Zack and Montica O'Crowley farm just outside of Merced, California. Their primary cash crop is almonds but their farming practices are vastly different than most almond growers. High biomass cover crops, multi-species livestock integration, and harvesting above ground are not commonly seen in most almond production but that is what you will see on the O'Crowley farm. By submitting to nature's design and exercising patience in the process, they are bringing new life to their orchard.
You can follow the O'Crowley's on Instagram here: / into.the.orchard
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[@sheelaghomalley5459]

Watching from Ireland. O' Crowley is a,very Irish name. Great to see the Irish are innovating wherever they go ❤

[@christopherburman3340]

Great story. I would be tempted to try a Johnson-su bioreactor to push the fungi in the orchard. I plant pomegranates on a small plot on south africa and am looking forward to seeing what johnson-su compost will do. Many thanks for sharing

[@brucedanckwerts1634]

I'm a little skeptical about the Johnson-su bioreactor. Yes we want mycorrhizal fungi in our orchards, but are there species of fungi that can live (in a Johnson-su) by rotting down dead plant material (saprotrophic) and then switch to a mycorrhizal symbiosis lifestyle in an orchard? None of the Fungi Fundis I have asked have been able to answer this question.

[@adrianrubi824]

@@brucedanckwerts1634 As far as I know the mycorrhiza fungie don't survive a composting process, or at least wont propagate. But what I saw in a small trial with compost tea and mycrohizal fungie, that the compost tea application alone boost mycorrhizal symbiosis more than the application of mycorrhizal spores. I think it is important to have a high microbial activity in the soil that mycorrhizal work. In an other trial we saw, that adding mycorrhizal spore don't have an extra effect as soon as the soil already has a certain level of microbial biomass. Its better to focus on the whole soil food web than on single mycorrhizal strains. The goal should be to boost the local microbiology

[@jvin248]

The O'Crowley's should look into building native bee houses, stacks of short-cut hollow reeds and other materials.

[@FlakeyPM]

Picture of the harvester???

[@GreenCoverSeed]

There are a few videos of the harvester on the O'Crowley's instagram: instagram.com/into.the.orchard

[@FlakeyPM]

@@GreenCoverSeed Not on Insta

[@asktodd2000]

Very informative, but the wife constantly interrupting her husband made me loose focus. I found myself counting her interruptions. God bless the husband, he must be graced with the patience of Job.

[@Jason-pc9tx]

Omg quit interrupting your husband. Great info tho