Functional Soil Health

Our lab is collaborating with USDA researchers and scientists at the Stanford Synchrotron Light Source to quantify changes to phosphorus speciation and uptake by grapes after fertilization over a growing season.

We have been collecting soil, root, and leaf samples at physiologically important points during the season to help us better understand P dynamics in the soil-plant system. This has been a whole team effort!

Devin applying phosphoric acid as fertilizer at the beginning of the season prior to bud break.
Brandon, learning from the expert, Julie, how to prune grape vines.
“Pink tipped buds” right before bud break.
Grape flower clusters formimg
Grape flowers in a mesh bag to catch caps for flower counting.
Grape roots preserved to count arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi colonization
Veraison starting
Liz and Sam mounting samples for P speciation work at SSRL.
Katherine prepping samples at SSRL
Liz prepping samples at SSRL