Project Overview
Annual Reports
Commodities
- Fruits: melons
- Vegetables: broccoli, carrots, tomatoes
Practices
- Crop Production: conservation tillage
- Education and Training: extension
- Farm Business Management: budgets/cost and returns
- Pest Management: mulches - killed, mulches - living, mulching - plastic, physical control, row covers (for pests)
- Production Systems: general crop production
- Soil Management: organic matter
Proposal abstract:
Approximately 2000 farms in southern New England report vegetables as a major crop (NASS 2009). Weed control is a major issue for these producers. Cultivation is the primary weed control method; it is expensive in terms of labor and fuel, and can degrade soil. Many vegetable producers use winter cover crops, but use of summer cover crops and reduced tillage is limited. We propose to establish a three-year cover cropping trial at the URI research farm to study perennial and summer cover crops integrated into vegetable production. Each year we will host three twilight meetings and a winter workshop to educate growers about cover cropping and permit them to evaluate the trials. We will also share information through a blog, an extension bulletin, and journal articles. The audience for this project is vegetable producers in Rhode Island, southern New England, and Long Island. Dr. Rebecca Brown will lead the project in collaboration with extension agent Kristen Castrataro and guided by a committee of vegetable producers. Twenty vegetable producers (10% of Rhode Island total) will adopt a combination of cover crops, living mulches, and zone tillage to control weeds on at least 10% of their vegetable acreage. Quarterly twilight meetings and workshops will attract 200 growers over three years; participants will learn about new vegetable varieties and production methods they can adopt on their farms. Fifty University of Rhode Island students pursuing careers in agriculture will receive hands-on learning opportunities by assisting with cover crop trials.
Performance targets from proposal:
Twenty vegetable producers (10% of Rhode Island total) will adopt a combination of cover crops and reduced tillage to control weeds and improve soil quality on a total of 500 acres (25% of RI vegetable acreage). Quarterly twilight meetings and workshops will attract 200 growers over three years; participants will learn about new vegetable varieties and production methods they can adopt on their farms. Fifty University of Rhode Island students pursuing careers in agriculture will receive hands-on learning opportunities by assisting with cover crop trials as part of the vegetable production class or as summer interns.