July 2020
Healthy Soil Solutions Monthly
Good Morning All:

Welcome to the first edition of Penny Newman Farm Products Division’s monthly newsletter. In this publication, we will be engaging with our community of growers and partners to keep everyone informed of relevant industry news, innovations in production ag, new product releases and exclusive offers available only to subscribers. We certainly understand that some folks may not appreciate being kept in the loop and adding yet another email to clear out of their inboxes, so if you’d like to unsubscribe, you can do so by clicking the link at the bottom of this message.  

Penny Newman’s Farm Products Division was born out of a recognition that optimum crop fertility and resilience can be accomplished through alternative and more cost-effective methods than those largely being offered to growers today. We launched this division a little over three years ago and, being a California based company, decided to attack two of the most uniquely challenging issues plaguing our home state: water and soil salinity. 

California’s ag sector is truly amazing. We’ve turned a desert into the most productive agricultural region in the world but, as a desert, the lack of rainfall and drainage not only leads to a scarcity of water but also high salt accumulation in our soils. We’ll refrain from getting into the details of SGMA or putting any sort of a political bent on addressing the water issues we’re dealing with in our state, but one thing we can all agree on is that CA growers need to make the best use of what little (and expensive!) water they have. Drip irrigation was a step in the right direction but had the unintended consequence of increasing salt accumulation (less water applied = less flushing/leaching of salts). Those salts are a detriment; they inhibit root growth, water infiltration, and the propagation of aerobic microbes that are vital for nutrient availability and uptake. Enter our solution:  Carbon Penetrant – the single most effective product on the market for increasing water infiltration and mitigating salinity.

After several years in the field watching this product work, we recognized that its benefits go so far beyond water efficiency and salinity mitigation. From better soil aeration and reduction in compaction to increased nutrient uptake and soil organic matter, it became clear that this was a multi-faceted product and not just your run-of-the-mill water penetrant, so much so that we decided its old name will no longer suffice. It’s our pleasure to announce the re-branding of our flagship product to Full Spectrum C+P . Per my comments above, it takes a full spectrum approach to improving soil health, and we thought the name should give it credit for doing so!

We recognize that Penny Newman is relatively new to the world of soil amendments and fertilizers, so we owe our earliest customers a unique debt of gratitude for giving us the opportunity to prove the efficacy of our product. That said, you can see from the testimonials below that those early adopters were rewarded for their leap of faith with some amazing results: 30% increase in water infiltration, $200 per acre savings in input costs, 2.5x multiple in yield on an off-year for olives..  just to name a few. And be sure to check out the aerial photos courtesy of our fellow Ag Center affiliates, Ceres Imaging , that highlight improved canopy/chlorophyll and significantly reduced water stress from Full Spectrum C+P acres vs a competing penetrant that were taken from a large pistachio grower in Kern County.   

Helping customers achieve these outcomes has made work fun and helped us to establish the ethos that will remain the driving force behind this division: we’re committed to providing customers with best-in-class products that not only increase yield and plant vigor, but save growers money upfront through a reduction in input costs. The fun part comes in when folks recognize that these same products and methods also improve the health of their soils, creating more long-term resilience and having a net-positive impact on the environment. We’ll go into this in greater detail on subsequent newsletters but, until then, stay safe and stay cool out there! 

-The Team at Penny Newman Farm Products Division

Customer Testimonials
Mitch Yribarren, Grower
Yribarren Family Farms - Tranquility, CA

Crop: Almonds
Product: Full Spectrum C+P
“We started using Full Spectrum C+P three years ago when our orchard was 13 years old. At the time, California was in the third year of a very dry period of hydrology statewide and our irrigation district was extremely reliant on well water for the second year in a row. The water was adding to the overall salinity of the soil and the effects were more pronounced in our trees because of their age relative to other orchards in our area. Leaf tip burn, trees completely drying up and late season leaf defoliation were some of the negative effects..."
Nate Laux, Grower, PCA/CCA
Primo Farms - Porterville, CA

Crop: Citrus
Product: K-C 70 Potassium Acetate
“We are using this to help increase fruit size. At this time last year, we were averaging a whole lot of 88s and smaller. This year we are seeing improved sized structure with more 56s and 72s. In early December we are already way ahead of the game compared to last year. You really need to bring size to the packer to be profitable and K-C 70 has helped us get to where we need to be. We were astonished to see our brix levels at 10-11 at this time of year. We are planning to go to a full program with Penny Newman next year...”
Recent CERES Images taken to test the performance of Full Spectrum C+P vs. a grower standard and competitive penetrant product for a large pistachio grower on the Westside of the Central Valley showed very positive results. Full Spectrum C+P treated fields highlighted in red show significantly improved canopy and chlorophyll content vs the grower standard and competing penetrant to the left. Check out the images below!
Top Image: Red Outlined area showing increase in NDVI canopy cover after first application of Full Spectrum C+P between 4.24.2020 (left) and 5.27.2020 (right). More water and nutrients are getting to the trees!

Bottom Image: Red outlined area showing less water stress and more uniformity in the field between 4.24.2020 (left) and 6.17.2020 (right). More water is getting to the trees!
Penny Newman is a Proud Affiliate of The Ag Center!
About the Ag Center
A one-stop-shop, connecting Ag professionals with quality services from a team of leaders in the industry. With our variety of services and extensive knowledge, we’re able to act fast and save our customers their most precious resource-TIME! The knowledge and reach that we have is unbeatable…

Visit The Ag Center website to learn more about all of the affiliates here to serve your agricultural needs!
Live Earth Products Spotted in Organic Produce Network (OPN) Newsletter!
We are a proud supplier of Live Earth Products humic soil amendments and fertilizers. The company was recently featured in Organic Produce Networks April Newsletter.
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