Increasing Varietal Suitability and Availability of Cowpea and Forage Radish Cover Crop Seed for Northern Climates

Increasing Varietal Suitability and Availability of Cowpea and Forage Radish Cover Crop Seed for Northern Climates

Summary

Our preliminary year of 2012 and our first full year of 2013 proved to be challenging with great successes and incredible challenges for this cover crop project.  We have had to rethink the direction of our work with radish, but we were also able to intermate eight accessions identified as especially noteworthy by an NPSAS FBC member to form a new composite radish population.  Progress with cowpea as a cover crop has been rapid, and we have found about a dozen accessions that are very promising for field use and for regional seed production.  Other researchers in the region have requested to join our cowpea evaluation efforts. Outreach has gotten started via several means and we anticipate an expansion of these activities in 2014.

Objectives/Performance Targets

Objective 1.  Increase access to cowpea seed varieties with useful cover crop traits and the ability to mature quality seed in northern climates.

Activity A1.  Screen 25-40 cowpea varieties in spring seed production and late summer cover crop evaluations.

Activity A2.  Conduct winter nursery seed increases of top ranked cowpea varieties, 25-40 in 2012-2013 and 8-12 in 2013-2014.

Objective 2. Increase access to forage radish seed with useful cover crop traits and the ability to mature quality seed in northern climates.

Activity A1.  Plant roots of a pre-selected forage radish bulk population in a root-to-seed production plot. Harvest seeds by mid-summer.

Activity A2.  Plant harvested seeds to cover crop trials in mid-summer; dig, evaluate, select, and overwinter roots for another round of selection.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Cowpea: Before SARE funding expanded our project, NPSAS, NDSU, and NRCS performed a screen of 10 accessions of cowpeas near Belfield, ND in 2011 and over 90 accessions of cowpeas at Bismarck and Carrington, ND in 2012.  Seed from the three accessions that matured seeds in 2011 and from the eighteen accessions that matured some seeds in 2012 were sent to the University of Puerto Rico for increase over the winter of 2012-2013. Seeds of five more varieties available commercially or via Seed Savers Exchange were also sent along to provide additional insights into early cowpeas.  A total of 25 varieties were sent for increase and seeds of 23 of the varieties came back in spring of 2013, with one variety increased up to 17 pounds from 100 feet of row.  There were enough seeds from 21 of the varieties to use in replicated trials that summer at Dickinson, ND, Carrington, ND, Beresford, SD, and Madison, WI.

Although planted very late due to the extended rain and cold in the spring of 2013, all of our university collaborators did get the trials planted. Data on seed production and plant traits were collected from the early, seed production trial plantings at every location.  Only the University of Wisconsin late plantings for cover crop evaluations came up and yielded information; the rest of those plantings grew exceedingly slowly due to late summer dryness and cooling temperatures.  Key data that we have shared with stakeholders in the region include these:

          Field days were not held at each location due to the late planting backing up many activities at the agricultural experiment stations until late in the summer.  NPSAS and NDSU did, however, hold a joint organic ag field day in July, 2013 and the cowpea planting was featured during this event which had 41 people in attendance. One highlight was the enthusiasm demonstrated by a Korean attendee and a Nigerian attendee who made sure we all understood that cowpea could also be an excellent food crop if we expanded our consideration.  An offer was made to trial our varieties for pulse crop purposes and we are considering the suggestion.  Food uses could also include leafy vegetables, green pods, and shelled beans for human food. Video featuring the plantings in Carrington was shot and will be posted to YouTube along with other highlights of that field day.

Other outreach for the project has included ongoing posts to the NPSAS Farm Breeding Club Facebook page and photos and notes about the project in the NPSAS Germinator Newsletter. For instance in March, 2013, FBC reported this in the Germinator: FBC members are also involved in the development of radish and cowpea cover crops via a SARE Research and Education Grant.  We have been working out some of the kinks to move forward with radish since its flowering is a biologically complex trait and in general the big rooted radishes are biennials that would normally die in our open but still cold Dakota winters.  On the other hand, the cowpeas are blooming and setting seed for us in Puerto Rico and we are all looking forward to getting the seeds back for another round of increase and small plot evaluations this summer by University of Wisconsin, SDSU, and NDSU.  Watch for participatory evaluation tours this summer!  Photos and a brief description of the project were also shared at the local foods conference in Rapid City, SD in December, 2013.

Key data were analyzed in December, 2013, and a table of the average results shared with stakeholders in the region so that they could rate the varieties for value in further evaluation.  Eight stakeholders shared their ratings of the cowpeas and chose their ten picks. Analysis of this voting provided a list of eleven of the accessions for further increase and evaluation. At the request of Peter Sexton, our collaborator from SDSU, an additional variety used as a border row planting in Beresford, SD, was also sent to Puerto Rico for increase, bringing the number of possible entries for 2014 up to twelve.  Seeds were subsequently shipped to Bryan Brunner at the University of Puerto Rico for increase at their western ag experiment station. However, the biggest surprise with cowpeas has been a request by researchers with the universities in Minnesota and Nebraska to join our cowpea evaluations in 2014. Those discussions are ongoing.

Radish: Emily Stiegelmeier conducted a screen of over 30 accessions of big rooted radishes in 2011, although she was not able to successfully dig late-planted roots and store them over the winter. She replanted remnant seeds of the very best accessions in 2012, saving seeds from the plants that made seeds by late August from a May planting and also making additional root selections from a late planting of these exceptional varieties.  However, as in 2011, she was unable to keep the small roots of the late-planted accessions through the winter for replanting in the spring, and seed production via this seed-to-root-to-seed method did not materialize as we had intended. FBC members did discuss the progress and challenges of our work with radishes during the member update workshop at the NPSAS Winter Conference in Aberdeen, SD in January, 2013.

 Our SARE project work with radish was to build on Emily’s on-farm selections, but with no roots we were greatly hampered in that objective.  FBC choose eight of the top performers from Emily’s 2011 evaluation (table below) and Kat Becker planted them in Wisconsin as early as she could, given the wet and cold spring they were having in 2013.  Kat harvested seed from this mixed planting which represents the first generation of forming a new composite variety from these exceptional accessions. Emily’s seed increase from 2012 will be mixed with those grown in Wisconsin. These seeds will be the primary basis of our further radish work in 2014.

In 2013, FBC member Frank Kutka also planted out four hybrid daikon radishes and seeds of Miyashige to see if seed production was a possibility in western North Dakota. Flowering time varied widely, however, seed was produced that represents a second new composite variety for our possible use going forward.  Frank also purchased seeds of three large rooted radish varieties from Belarus that he hopes to increase and screen in 2014.

Outreach for the radish objective included postings on the FBC Facebook page and notes in the NPSAS Germinator.  No field events were held in 2013 given our complete revision of the project activities with this species.  The radish part of the project has been the most challenging, but now that we have some new and hopefully superior seeds we anticipate planning a field day to discuss and demonstrate radishes, radish breeding, and radish seed production.

Other: The project evaluation committee met in spring of 2013 to discuss project organization, developments with each of the species, and the weather.  Plans are to meet again in spring and fall of 2014 in order to help the project coordinators and collaborators maintain progress with cowpea evaluations and seed increase, to further increase radish seeds and begin radish demonstrations in 2014, and to increase public interaction and outreach via field events at every location when the plants are near maturity.  NPSAS staff  members discuss the project as needed during their weekly planning/update conference calls.

Email was used to get comments from project advisors Juan Osorno, Jim Myers, and Kevin McPhee concerning cowpea outcrossing and pollination issues.  This information was shared with FBC Co-coordinators and Bryan Brunner.  A video is being planned to cover these topics for prospective seed growers. Project advisor John Navazio discussed the options for radish during a phone call with FBC Co-Coordinator Frank Kutka in March 2013.  This input and our field experiences have been the basis for rethinking and getting started with a more successful approach to radish evaluations and selection.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

• Seeds of 21 cowpea accessions were increased enough for preliminary replicated evaluations at four sites in the upper Midwest in the cold, wet summer of 2013.
• Remnant seeds of 11 of these accessions were sent for further increase in Puerto Rico for 2014 replicated variety trials.
• Eight accessions of large-rooted radish were intermated in Wisconsin, forming a new composite population. An FBC member formed a second breeding population by intermating hybrid daikon radishes in western North Dakota.
• Forty-one attendees at the organic field day in Carrington, ND in July heard about the cover crop project and were able to see the early growth in the cowpea trial.
• Sixty plus attendees at the Local Foods Conference in Rapid City, SD in December heard about the cover crop project and on-farm selection of seeds.
• NPSAS members and other interested stakeholders in the region were able to see our initial cowpea results and rate the varieties for their value in further evaluations. Eight stakeholders from within and outside the project offered ratings of the varieties.
• Updates about the cover crop project were shared via the NPSAS Germinator newsletter and the NPSAS Farm Breeding Club Facebook page.  The Germinator gets to all 400 plus members of NPSAS and the FBC Facebook page usually reaches 100-150 viewers for each post.
• A presentation was given at the 2015 NCR-SARE Farmers Forum, held in conjunction with the NPSAS Winter Conference. A video recording of this is available through NCR-SARE’s YouTube channel at: https://youtu.be/REMMcnWlwEM?list=PLQLK9r1ZBhhFIETmMLo1dZBEVYZWXBIM1
  

Collaborators: