Project Overview
Information Products
Commodities
- Fruits: berries (other)
- Vegetables: asparagus, rhubarb
Practices
- Crop Production: agroforestry, alley cropping, intercropping
- Education and Training: demonstration, on-farm/ranch research
- Production Systems: agroecosystems
Summary:
Most shrub fruits (e.g. brambles, elderberry, blueberry, currants) are grown in rows spaced tightly (8-15 feet) to maximize yield while permitting access by mechanical harvesters. While these “alleys” receive plenty of light, their narrow width prevents efficient cultivation of most crops. Consequently, most farmers resort to a simple grass-clover groundcover, which provides neither revenue nor substantial ecological benefits to the farm.
At Saturn Farms, we also started with grass-clover alleys but have since realized the inefficiency in this approach. We wanted to explore several perennial alley alternatives that could improve farm profitability and sustainability while maintaining the management/harvest efficiency of the berries: asparagus, rhubarb, and native prairie (for seed). These are ideal alley crop candidates because their harvest seasons are complementary to most shrub fruits, and they can easily rebound after being driven over by a tractor/harvester.
We (1) established pilot plots of the three alternatives within currant alleys on our farm, (2) assessed the impact of alley crops on currant growth, yield, disease incidence, and weed pressure, (3) evaluated alley crops for compatibility with the currant machine harvester, and (4) shared findings through a field day, a video, a results bulletin, and social media.
No significant differences in berry yield or disease incidence were measured across the treatments in either year.
With asparagus and rhubarb alley crops, currant plant height was 5-9% greater and width was 2-9% lower relative to the control treatment. In the pollinator habitat treatment, however, while currant plant width was similarly reduced by 13-18%, plant height was also reduced by 2-11%. This reduction in plant height is most likely explained by an overall reduction in vigor in the currant plants with pollinator habitat alleys, as this treatment was the most vigorous and competitive of all the treatments.
The geometric design of both the asparagus and rhubarb treatments seemed to function as intended — good compatibility with the wheels of the tractor and harvester. However, the rhubarb was more resilient to damage caused by the low ground clearance of the mechanical harvester. The increase in currant plant height that occurred in the asparagus and rhubarb treatments may also allow the machine harvester to capture more berries as they grow higher on the stems.
Project objectives:
1) Establish pilot plots of three perennial crop alternatives for potential use in machine-harvested berry crop alleys on our farm.
2) Assess the impact of alley crops on berry crop growth, yield, and disease incidence.
3) Evaluate the perennial crops for compatibility with the currant machine harvester.
4) Share findings through a field day, a video, a results bulletin, and social media.