Project Overview
Annual Reports
Commodities
- Vegetables: tomatoes
Practices
- Crop Production: grafting, high tunnels or hoop houses
- Education and Training: on-farm/ranch research
- Farm Business Management: budgets/cost and returns
- Pest Management: cultural control
- Production Systems: organic agriculture
Proposal abstract:
This project is a site-specific evaluation of grafting as an economically feasible tool for soil-borne disease management in organic tomato production in high tunnels. We are proposing to use commercially available resistant tomato rootstocks to graft susceptible heirloom and specialty tomato cultivars grown in organically managed high tunnels at Frog Song Organics. By teaching the growers how to produce grafted tomato transplants onsite in a cost-effective way, we expect to establish a partnership with local growers for technology transfer which allows for a practical assessment of grafting with respect to its potential for improving long-term sustainability of high-value vegetable production systems under high tunnels.
Project objectives from proposal:
Objective 1. Determine the effectiveness of grafting with resistant rootstocks for controlling soil-borne diseases in heirloom and specialty tomatoes grown in organically managed high tunnel.
Objective 2. Assess fruit yield and quality as affected by grafting with vigorous disease-resistant rootstocks.
Objective 3. Analyze the costs and returns of high tunnel production of grafted tomatoes to determine its economic feasibility in a commercial operation setting.