PCC MarchApril Final Draft
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this grand prosperity of crop biostimulants is not shared<br />
equally among people who use them. Particularly to vegetable<br />
growers who operate farming at every scale that differs<br />
widely in climates, production timing, marketable portion,<br />
planting techniques, field preparation and maturity, it can<br />
be extremely complex to choose the right product from the<br />
long list and use it at the right time in the right way. The first<br />
and maybe the foremost step toward a more effective use of<br />
crop biostimulants among vegetable growers is to understand<br />
their current use, experience, concerns and hopes. To<br />
accomplish the task, a survey was sent<br />
out to collect the specific information<br />
from vegetable growers mainly in the<br />
San Joaquin Valley and other counties<br />
in California.<br />
The Survey and Respondent<br />
The survey was sent to approximately<br />
648 vegetable growers in late October<br />
2020 with the help of other UCCE<br />
advisors and commodity boards. The<br />
survey was then closed about two<br />
months thereafter before the responses<br />
were summarized. The original survey<br />
can be found at cestanislaus.ucanr.edu/<br />
Agriculture/Vegetable_Crops/Biostimulant_Survey/.<br />
The survey contains<br />
eight questions with the first four<br />
asking growers how they farm and the<br />
last four related to their experience<br />
and opinions to crop biostimulants. By<br />
the end of December 2020, we received<br />
a total of 83 responses (12.8%), with 74<br />
of them being valid responses (11.4%).<br />
Nine responses were not included<br />
because there were two replies without<br />
an answer to any of the question, five<br />
responses from oversea, and two responses<br />
from counties outside California.<br />
Details about the composition and<br />
production of the 74 respondents are<br />
included below and in Table 1.<br />
By production, there were 10, 27 and<br />
37 growers claiming organic only, conventional<br />
only and mix of both.<br />
By scale, there were 31, 7 and 36 growers<br />
with vegetable production scale<br />
below 100 acres, 100 to 500 acres and<br />
over 500 acres.<br />
ORGANIC<br />
By commodity, crops with more than 10 responses included<br />
tomato (46), pepper (23), melon (21), summer/winter squash<br />
(21), leafy greens/herbs (21), cole crops (16), watermelon (16)<br />
and onion (13).<br />
By production location, the 74 growers claimed to have their<br />
vegetable fields in 21 counties across California. For details,<br />
see Table 1.<br />
®<br />
Continued on Page 38<br />
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March / April 2021 www.progressivecrop.com 37
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