Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS
410 MRAK HALL
DAVIS,CA 95616-8671
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
South Dakota stakeholders have expressed great interest in information on organic vegetable management strategies to improve profitability and ecosystem sustainability. To meet this need, it will require concerted efforts to generate science-based data for field demonstrations and ecosystem service evaluations. Specifically, barriers to production include climatic conditions, lack of knowledge on organic transitioning, and unknown performance of different organic management practices to maintain production and profitability through nutrient management and weed control, with lower reliance on organic manure and tillage. Thus, we proposed to investigate the feasibility and impacts of living mulch integration on agronomic performance, soil health, economic returns, and overall ecosystem services for organic vegetable production.The proposed project will be conducted at one South Dakota State University research farm and one farmer's field that are both at the organic transitioning stage, and one USDA organic certified farmer's field in South Dakota. It will address questions surrounding the incorporation of perennial clover species in vegetable cropping systems by trialing three varieties (red clover, white clover, and kura - white clover) as living mulch. Three different cash crops (squash, cabbage, and sweet corn) will be grown in rotation in the living mulch and four different tillage management practices will be used.Stakeholders will be closely involved in defining the problems, planning, participating in the study, and providing feedback. Dissemination of information will be to the specialty crop producers and associations, university and high school students, agency personnel, and other stakeholders through formal and informal extension and education channels.The research has the potential to improve the resilience of vegetable cropping systems in South Dakota by identifying new management strategies that utilize organic practices without compromising crop yield, while improving soil health and providing multiple ecological environmental benefits. This work will provide pertinent information in areas with short growing seasons, and therefore a small window for cover crop incorporation, as well as low soil organic matter and fertility, like South Dakota.Specifically, utilizing living mulch as a management option aims to benefit small vegetable farms with little organic manure resources and for those farmers adopting reduced tillage. The findings of this work will also be beneficial to other areas with low adoption of organic practices due to lack of transitioning and certificating information. We hope to promote organic vegetable production in South Dakota and other areas with similar climatic conditions and therefore contribute to growth of overall organic farming in the US. The data generated from this project will fill an important research gap in organic vegetable production and provide valuable information on sustainable vegetable production.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
50%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
The goal of this project is to understand the benefits of living mulch integration on improving soil health, nutrient use efficiency, and ecosystem sustainability while sustaining productivity and profitability in organic vegetable production systems in South Dakota. Specific objectives and their associated progress and future plans are listed below:Objective 1) Soil health assessment. Investigate the impacts of living mulch integration using different perennial clover cover crop species on soil health indicators, soil nutrients, soil organic carbon, and microbial community structure and activities in organic vegetable production systems.Objective 2) Agronomic assessments. Study cover crop biomass production and cash crop yield, nutrient uptake, cover crop and cash crop plant quality, and weed biomass and community as influenced by different cover crop species selected for living mulch integration in organic vegetable production systems.Objective 3) Economic analysis. Estimate the input costs, output prices, and overall profitability at transitioning stage in organic vegetable production, and/or early stages of living mulch integration.Objective 4) Extension and outreach (knowledge, research findings, and information distribution). Organize field days and webinars to demonstrate field management and disseminate findings from the study to farmers, extension specialists, and other stakeholders to increase the impact and the adoption of living mulch integration practices. Provide knowledge and technologies, and information for organic vegetable production and USDA organic certifying processes.Objective 5) Education (university lectures, student training, undergraduate and youth education). Offer lectures for university students to gain knowledge of organic vegetable management. Train and educate undergraduate and graduate students in participating in research projects. Provide tours to undergraduate and high school students to introduce organic vegetable farming.
Project Methods
Objective 1The 2025 collected soils, including 0-60 cm soils from the 2022 initiated trial and 0-10 cm soils from the 2023 initiated trial, will be continue analyzed in the soil lab at South Dakota State University by the guidance of the PD. The 2025 data from 2022 trial will be combined with the data collected in the previous three years to make it a complete dataset for this trial. Deep soil data between 2022 and 2025 will also be compared to see if there is change in soil carbon, nitrogen, and nutrients. The 2023 initiated trial will be used for deep soil sampling again in spring 2026 to conduct lab and data analysis as a complete dataset for this trial. Data collected from the farmers sites will be analyzed and interpreted to provide information on those sites. Manuscripts and reports will be generated from this objective soon after the work is completed.Objective 2The 2023 initiated trial at the Southeast Research Farm have the third-year vegetable crop (sweet corn) in 2025. Field management as well as data and sample collection will continue. The agronomic data collected from the research trials will be analyzed. Plant tissue will be sent to commercial lab for nutrient analysis. The research team will continue communicating with participating farmers to see if they will be interested in future studies.Objective 3One student will keep tracking the remaining data for the growing season in 2025. Another student has been trained by co PD Dr. Wang to learn how to organize data and will analyze the available data for an extension publication.Objective 4The project team will continue to host field day at the participating farm, give talks and university field day, conferences, and other local events, and publish papers to distribute the findings from this study.Objective 5The project team will continue teaching based on their roles in each university. They will mentor and train students to complete the project and gain more experience in lab analysis, data interpretation, scientific communication, and publications.