communities. There were successes. Challenging years like last year should never discourage us from planting more cover crops nor should they discourage new adopters from starting. Indeed, it should garner even more of a resolve to plant because of the positive benefits we see in just a few years of implementation. Our Seed for Bees (SFB) free seed program was designed to give growers two years of free seed in a tiered manner. The first year, growers get $2500 off their seed purchase and the second year, growers get $1500 dollars off their seed purchase. After that, though there is no free seed, we encourage growers to take advantage of our wholesale, nonprofit discounts and free shipping. The main reason we designed the program this way is because the majority of growers planting cover crops see positive changes in the soil, bees, and/or crop after just two years. Although the changes may be slight at first, we still see them. This is exactly how it worked for me when I started my own cover crop program years ago. I saw huge increases in bee activity, and my soil was clearly improving. Every year, we send out a participant survey that asks a vital question: “Will you continue to plant cover crops after your two years of free seed in the Seeds for Bees program ? ” In the five years we have conducted the survey, 90–95% of respondents claimed they would continue to plant cover crop
A cover crop was planted in this orchard and yielded very little viable pollen in Merced County. (Photo courtesy of George Hansen)
germination and stand are common, but in my experience, they seem to be exacerbated in flood and drought cycles. Regardless of these typical kinds of annual changes in seed, germination, and stand, this year seemed to be one for the books. Farmers who planted cover crops were yet again at the mercy of varying and extreme weather systems. For many of us, this caused havoc in our plans. Even in my short time farming in the Central Valley, I’ve seen a wide array of drought and flood. After taking our almond cover cropping program to yearly plantings, I started planting cover crop in our walnut orchards just to keep the soil in place after extreme flooding eroded many metric tons of topsoil the year before. This year, California experienced two sizable atmospheric rivers, one of which was coupled with a bomb
cyclone. Then, the spigot was shut off. In just one year, we got flooded and had extreme drought. This kind of weather variability can be intensely frustrating for farmers planting cover crop. Growers up and down the Central Valley, regardless of water allocation, irrigation system type, and soil type faced huge upsets after setting seed in the ground. Some planted right before an atmospheric river, only to watch their seed be taken away in a gully washer. Others planted after the second atmospheric river, only to have not one more drop of rain until the end of February. Furthermore, some growers who got their seed in the ground in the month of October still didn’t have viable pollen until after the almond bloom. Frustrations abounded. Despite the headaches, I continue to be impressed with the strong resolve of our California producer
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