Podcast Extra: Ask Me Anything with John Kempf - July 10, 2026

In this Podcast Extra, Join John as he answers a wide range of grower-submitted questions covering challenges in agriculture. The discussion focuses on managing high summer leaf temperatures, optimizing organic nitrogen budgets, and navigating severe base saturation imbalances. John emphasizes the critical connection between precise crop nutrition, active soil biology, and the natural suppression of destructive diseases and pests.

Other topics discussed include:

Managing nutrition and the microbiome through AEA's integrated approach to help achieve crop resistance to spotted wing drosophila in berries. Reducing pecan scab and weevil pressure by balancing trace minerals and applying AEA products like Pinion and PhotoMag. Evaluating plant metabolism and internal health by measuring sugar levels, EC, and pH/EH homeostasis on a sap analysis. Managing almond bloom diseases and pests like navel orange worm using AEA's Pinion alongside targeted applications of calcium and boron. Executing safe foliar applications of solubilized urea by managing overall solution concentration and electrolyte levels to prevent crop leaf burn. Improving late-season calcium absorption in fruit crops through soil shading and foliar boron applications.  Pre-blending AEA nutritional products before spraying to create a synergistic response because the formulations are designed to support living biology. Addressing insect pests like the apple borer using a foliar combination of AEA's PhotoMag, Rejuvenate, and Rebound Boron. Mitigating crop damage from herbicide drift using AEA products like SeaStim, MacroPak, MicroPak, HoloCal, and Rebound minerals to bind chelating herbicide molecules. Utilizing micronized mineral products like AEA's Accelerate and HoloCal to deliver fast results as leaf-surface microbes rapidly metabolize the minerals. Generating disproportionate crop responses in soil by fertigating and feeding rhizosphere microbes with the same consistency as foliar feeding. Increasing lipid levels in pasture forage through adequate soil levels of calcium, sulfur, and boron combined with strategic grazing management. Understanding how high sodium and chloride accumulation distorts refractometer brix readings by inflating total dissolved solids rather than indicating pure sugar content. About John Kempf

A top expert in biological and regenerative farming, John founded AEA in 2006 to help fellow farmers by providing the education, tools, and strategies that will have a global effect