Summer and winter vegetable and cover crop cultivar performance in Organic fresh vegetable cropping systems in Oregon

View the project final report

Commodities

• Vegetables: brussel sprouts, cabbages, cauliflower, cucurbits, garlic, cover crops, celeriac, sprouting broccoli and chicories

Practices

• Crop Production: cover crops, crop improvement and selection, crop rotation, varieties and cultivars
• Education and Training: demonstration, workshop
• Production Systems: organic agriculture

Our goal is to help farmers select cultivars for summer and winter vegetables and cover crops
for irrigated Organic fresh vegetable cropping systems west of the Cascade Mountains. We discussed priority crops and cultivars for the varieties with farmers, seed companies, chefs, wholesale distributors and breeders in the cultivar evaluation and breeding process. We developed evaluation criteria for the various crops included in the trials and conducted replicated variety trials at OSU’s North Willamette Research & Extension Center (NWREC). We hosted summer and winter vegetable and cover crop field days in February, April and September, 2019. These events drew 83 agricultural professionals and 73 farmers (156 total). 52 people (33% of participants) submitted evaluation forms. 61% of respondents said that the learned about sustainable agriculture, and all respondents said that they plan to use information from the field days in their work. If these responses are representative of the whole audience, 95 participants learned about sustainable agriculture, and 83 agricultural professionals plan to use information in their work. Results from our replicated vegetable and cover crop variety trials are being worked up. Pepper, tomato and melon variety trial reports have been added to an online vegetable variety trial database: https://varietytrials.eorganic.info/, cover crop trial results will contribute to an online cover crop trial sharing system being developed by the Western Cover Crop Council.

1. Conduct summer and winter vegetable and cover crop variety trials at OSU-NWREC
2. Develop evaluation criteria for the crops chosen
3. Host field days that facilitate interaction between agricultural professionals, students and farmers
4. Evaluate the field days and the crops included the trials, and make the variety trial results available online