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CapitalPress.com
Friday, April 8, 2022
Rancho Guejito: Saving water with moisture sensors, dense tree canopy
By TANYA CASTANEDA
For the Capital Press
SAN DIEGO COUNTY,
Calif. — Whenever Al Ste-
hly hears an idea to make
fruit groves more water-ef-
ficient, his ears perk up.
He has pioneered the com-
bined the use of both mois-
ture uptake sensors and
high-density planting for cit-
rus trees at Rancho Guejito.
Located in drought-prone
Southern California, the
ranch makes water conser-
vation a top business priority
for its 500 acres of organic
trees. Stehly, principal of
Stehly Grove Management,
is contracted to oversee the
ranch’s groves.
“We are very conscious
of how much water we use,
and we don’t want to over-
draft,” Stehly said.
Stehly enjoys being
an early adopter. Back in
2010, growers were starting
Rancho Guejito
Organic lemon groves at
Rancho Guejito.
Rancho Guejito
A worker views the Phytech app to check grove condi-
tions.
to use high-density plant-
ing method for avocados.
The method, used in Israel,
entails pruning trees to cre-
ate a low, thick canopy that
holds in moisture.
Stehly approached Ran-
cho Guejito Chief Oper-
ating Officer Hank Rupp
with a bold idea — plant-
ing mandarins, lemons and
grapefruit at high density,
even though the method was
untested for citrus. After
reviewing the data, Rupp
agreed to the plan.
“It’s all part of being a
good steward of the ranch
and its water resources,”
Rupp said. “If we take care
of this land and manage it
sustainably, it will remain
in agriculture, growing food
for future generations.”
The investment paid off.
The water savings were
immediate — the same
amount of water per acre,
for quadruple the fruit. Ran-
cho Guejito now plants 432
citrus trees per acre, which
is four times as many as the
standard density.
An added bonus: workers
like the shorter trees, which
make it easier and safer to
pick fruit.
Rancho Guejito is now
the largest organic pro-
ducer of citrus and avoca-
dos in San Diego County.
The ranch appears to be one
of the only high-density cit-
rus growers but Stehly pre-
dicts its success will attract
imitators.
A few years later, the
ranch launched another
water-smart initiative —
contracting with a company
named Phytech to place sen-
sors on its citrus trees.
“I liked the idea and con-
cept of measuring how much
water is absorbed by the
tree, rather than soil mois-
ture,” Stehly said.
Phytech Vice President
Oz Ben-David said the com-
pany’s water-smart technol-
ogy is designed to optimize
production based on direct
tree data, saying: “Rancho
Guejito is a great exam-
ple of how farms can make
the most of limited water
resources.”
The devices, about the
size of a sardine can, are
placed on three trees per sec-
tion. They sense the delicate
swelling and contraction of
the trunk to check whether
the tree is absorbing enough
water — sending updates on
grove conditions to the Phy-
tech cell phone app.
In the past, ranch crews
would irrigate groves on
hot days. But on a recent
95-degree day, the sensors
showed that the trees were
not stressed — likely because
of the high-density planting.
So Stehly shut off the
water for a day, saving “hun-
dreds of thousands of gal-
lons” of water.
Growers need to embrace
change and try new solu-
tions, he said.
“I used soil moisture
sensors for 40 years,” Ste-
hly said, “but now we don’t
watch soil moisture other
than kicking the ground.”
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