Flying Disc Ranch
| Type: | Farmer |
| Owner: | Robert Lower |
| Phone: | 760-399-5313 |
| Website: | http://flyingdiscranch.com |
| People: | Robert Lower along with his sons Eric and Ian, Pedro, Carolina and Maria Medina and World-Wide Workers on Organic Farms. |
| Bio: | Flying Disc Ranch is tropical desert filled with a forest of date palms with a lush undergrowth of citrus of all flavors. |
| Land: | 11 acres in Thermal, CA |
| History: | Robert bought his property--desert land that he cleared, irrigated, and planted with over 1,200 palms--in 1979. Flying Disc Ranch has become a tropical rainforest-type ecosystem, host to a wealth of wildlife. Different varieties of date palm are interplanted with citrus and all the date trees are hand-pollinated. Since the Coachella Valley is part of the great Mojave Desert and dates require a lot of moisture, Robert creates a "green oasis," with lots of water, compost, mulch and a year-round cover crop. Robert farms using a combination of techniques from many farming traditions; he has come to farm the way he does through "observation, adaptation and accident." He describes his ranch as "100% permaculture" and never uses any synthetic or organic pesticides. Despite the ecological methods he employs, Robert says he "will never be certified anything." |
| Soil: | The farms's soil is built with aged compost, cover crops, manure, and decomposed mulch. No tilling or discing techniques are used. |
| Water Use: | About 25% of the water used on Flying Disc Ranch is deep well water, and 75% is Colorado River water. Irrigation water is aerated so that the plants can absorb it better, and both flood and drip irrigation techniques are used. |
| Weed Control: | Mulch |
