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

Project Overview

MW18-006
Project Type: Enhanced State Grants
Funds awarded in 2018: $24,974.00
Projected End Date: 12/31/2019
Grant Recipient: Oregon State University
Region: Western
State: Oregon
Principal Investigator:
Nick Andrews
Oregon State University

Information Products

Variety Trial Reports (Fact Sheet)

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

    Proposal abstract:

    Our goal is to help farmers select cultivars for summer and winter vegetables, and cover crops
    for irrigated Organic fresh vegetable cropping systems. We will engage farmers, seed companies,
    chefs, wholesale distributors and breeders in the cultivar evaluation and breeding process.
    We will develop a holistic Organic vegetable and cover crop trial program. We will do this by
    growing multiple cultivars and breeding lines at OSU’s North Willamette Research & Extension
    Center (NWREC). We will evaluate the quality and adaptability of summer and winter
    vegetables and cover crops in the Willamette Valley. Cooperating farmers, seed companies,
    chefs, wholesale buyers and other agricultural professionals will help to identify priority
    vegetable and cover crop cultivars and evaluation criteria.
    We will host summer and winter vegetable and cover crop field days. These events will provide
    educational hubs for sharing trial results and other relevant sustainable agriculture information.
    We will post findings from our cultivar evaluations online.
    Since 2014, we have hosted summer vegetable variety field days every year at NWREC, and one
    winter vegetable variety field day in 2016. These trials have relied on seed company donations.
    This proposal would help us refine these trials, and extend them to include winter vegetables and
    cover crops. They would also allow us to develop evaluation criteria for all of these crops, and
    publish one year of data. This would also allow us to provide seed and on-farm evaluation
    protocols for farmers interested in trying vegetable and cover crop varieties on their farm.
    This would enable us to evaluate genetic performance in whole-farm Organic fresh vegetable
    cropping systems in the Willamette Valley. By coordinating on-farm variety trials, and including
    farmers, chefs and wholesale distributors in project priorities and evaluation criteria, we can also
    support participatory plant breeding in Oregon.

    Project objectives from proposal:

    Prioritize winter vegetables, and cover crops with farmers and seed
    company staff, prioritize traits to evaluate in trials (i.e. taste, yield, N
    content, pest tolerance, etc.), draft crop evaluation criteria
    August, 2018
    Coordinate seed donations to collaborating farmers interested in testing
    winter vegetable and cover crop cultivars on their farms.
    March, 2019
    Prioritize summer vegetables and cover crops, and draft crop evaluation
    criteria.
    Feb, 2019
    Coordinate seed donations to collaborating farmers interested in testing
    summer vegetable and cover crop cultivars on their farms.
    March, 2019
    Grow trials Year-round
    Prioritize summer vegetable and cover crops with farmers and seed
    company staff, prioritize traits to evaluate in trials (i.e. taste, yield, N
    content, pest tolerance, etc.), draft crop evaluation criteria
    Winter, 2018
    Support on-farm winter evaluations and coach farmers for the field day Spring, 2019
    Host winter vegetable and cover crop field day Spring, 2019
    Evaluate cover crop and winter vegetable trials Spring, 2019
    Support on-farm summer evaluations and coach farmers for the field day Sep, 2019
    Host summer vegetable and cover crop field day Sep, 2019
    Evaluate cover crop and summer vegetable trials Sep, 2019
    Format and publish variety trial reports online

    Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or SARE.