Source: NCDA&CS, 7/6/15

Gene Dawson of Ahoskie grows Eastern N.C. Christmas trees on three acres of land behind his home. Pate Pierce and his family farm 7,000 acres that includes tobacco, cotton, peanuts, sweet potatoes and clary sage. The two operations couldn’t be more different in size and scope, but both operations have benefitted from the expertise of regional agronomists with the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Dawson, who enjoys propagating plants and is self-taught, was looking to add pick-your-own blackberries and blueberries to his farm and planted a few rows of both as a start. But what began as a promising idea, didn’t really take off because the pH level of his soil was too high for optimal production, something Dawson did not know until agronomist Adam Lassiter took a soil test and reviewed the results.

“I wish I had known it two years ago,” Dawson said. “I lost over $2,000 worth of plants over a $12 bag of ammonium sulfate to fix it. This is the first time I have got any new growth in four years.”

Dawson admits he had doubts when agronomist Adam Lassiter recommended the ammonium sulfate based on soil test results. He had turned to books to research the conditions he was finding with the berries, but had never thought to check the soil pH and fertility.

“Everything in the books told me I had an iron deficiency and nitrogen deficiency. I bought nitrogen; it didn’t help,” Dawson said. 
“It is putting it mildly to say I was surprised this worked,” he added. “If I hadn’t received the advice from Adam, I was on the verge of plowing this up and planting Christmas trees on it. That’s how far gone I was with these blueberries.”

Dawson was not familiar with the department’s agronomic services until he was visited by Randy Copeland, a plant pest specialist with the NCDA&CS Plant Industry Division. Copeland was setting gypsy moth traps, but saw the problems with the blackberries and blueberries and put Dawson in touch with Lassiter.

Pierce’s situation was different.

Lassiter and Chris Jernigan, another regional agronomist, helped the Pierces with nutrient levels in their tobacco greenhouses float water to improve the quality of their greenhouse plants.

While the task might sound simple, Pierce’s greenhouses and float beds were two and three times the traditional size of greenhouses. “Pierce has a 300-foot float house; normal ones are about 100 feet. And he has 600-foot greenhouse, which typically are about 200 to 300 feet. We had to do several computations to get the right fertilizer calculations,” Lassiter said.

The results speak for themselves, Pierce said. “With tobacco, you’ve got a lot of things that can go wrong,” he said. “We got better quality greenhouse plants and more useable plants.” 

That helps with the bottom line, Lassiter said. “They are trying to supply enough plants for 1,000 acres, so every plant they don’t produce, they have to buy,” he said. 

But the agronomic help didn’t stop in the greenhouse, the agronomists also helped him address soil fertility and plant nutrition issues in the field with tobacco as well as the cotton and peanut crops. When trying to identify a problem, they have to evaluate if diseases or insects are a factor that may affect plant nutrition. 

Both Dawson and Pierce said they appreciated the help they have received from Lassiter and Jernigan, adding that they were always quick to respond to questions and issues at their farms.

“If I am not accessible, I’m no good to them,” Lassiter said. 

Lassiter, who grew up in Northeastern North Carolina and holds degrees from N.C. State University and N.C. A&T State University and is working on a degree from Virginia Tech, has had extensive experience with peanuts and cotton, while Jernigan grew up on a tobacco farm and was research station manager at Cunningham and Caswell research stations, has worked with tobacco nearly his whole life.

As agronomists in neighboring coverage areas, the two team up combining their individual expertise for the benefit of farmers they work with.

While plants may show tell-tale signs of a specific problem, agronomists start by taking a soil sample, a tissue sample or test the water being used. Armed with recommendations from those tests, the advice Lassiter and Jernigan offers is based on hard science and is not a guess. Helping farmers understand their soil test results and putting together an action plan for resolving issues are good for the grower and good for the environment.

Lassiter, who started as an agronomist in 2013, serves Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Gates, Hertford, Pasquotank and Perquimans counties. Jernigan, an N.C. State University graduate, serves Craven, Carteret, Greene, Jones, Lenoir and Pitt counties. For more about the department’s wide range of agronomic services, go to http://www.ncagr.gov/agronomi/.