Performing Department
College of Agriculture
Non Technical Summary
This is an Organic Transitions Research-led project to develop best management practices that mitigate risks of crop failure for initial years of organic transitioning fields and promote sustainable intensification of organic vegetable production. Best management practices for new organic systems will be determined based on agricultural and environmental aspects, such as soil health, weeds, insects, disease, crop development, yield, and quality. In addition, the feasibility for growers' adoption will be considered and stakeholders' involvement in planning, development, and implementation of outputs will be a key aspect of this project. As a result, Auburn University and the Alabama Cooperative Extension System will create guidelines for more effective land use, pre-planting land preparation, and weed management during the transition of organic vegetable fields. Conventional and novel outreach approaches will convey information generated from proposed activities to our clients, growers, and stakeholders. A project evaluation will measure the immediate and long-term impact. Ultimately, the certified organic field and proposed new capacity building initiative will ensure the sustainability of the project scale. The objectives of this project are in line with the Strategic Plans of USDA and the Priority Areas of the Organic Transitions.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
20%
Applied
50%
Developmental
30%
Goals / Objectives
Failure is frequently reported by vegetable growers during the initial years of an organic transitioning field; however, there is not a single guide with best management practices during the implementation of organic fields for vegetable production. While the majority of guides emphasize the required practices for organic certification, there is a clear lack of guidance on practices that minimize the risks of outbreaks and are environmentally friendly. Under these contexts, the overall project goal is to identify potential agricultural and environmental threats during the transition of organic fields for vegetable production, and to develop resilient strategies that mitigate risks of failures and improve the sustainable intensification of organic vegetable systems in the southeastern U.S. The project specific objectives are:Objective 1: Document potential risks of crop failure and determine benefits of alternative use of land for the first year of new vegetable organic fields.Objective 2: Evaluate the impact of pre-planting land preparation on soil health, plant development, and crop yield for the initial years of an organic field.Objective 3: Evaluate the effectiveness of weed control programs for key species populations during the initial years of an organic vegetable transition.Objective 4: Development of best management practices for organic vegetable transitioning fields.Objective 5: Extension, education, and internal project evaluation.
Project Methods
Objective 1:Document potential risks of crop failure and determine benefits of alternative use of land for the first year of new vegetable organic fieldsA one factorial experimental design will be used to evaluate three approaches of land use in a randomized complete block arrangement. Land use approaches will consist of fallow ground with periodic tillage, growing of a cover crop (i.e., sorghum sudangrass), and growing of a vegetable crop (i.e., tomato).Fallow ground treatment will consist of continuous use of bare ground during the entire season with constant soil tillage to control weeds. For the cover crop and vegetable crop treatments, a pre-planting land preparation of soil tillage and cultivation will be conducted. Sorghum sudangrass will be mechanically planted using a four-row planter. Plastic mulching beds with drip irrigation will be used for tomato plants that will be hand-transplanting.Our hypothesis is that growing cover crop during year 1 of organic transition builds soil health, suppresses weeds, and minimize risks of crop failure compared to fallow ground and production of vegetable crops. This means delaying cash crop by one year may provide long-term benefits.Objective 2:Evaluate the impact of pre-planting land preparation on soil health, plant development, and crop yield for the initial years of an organic fieldFor experiment 1, a one factorial experimental design of three strategies of pre-planting land preparation for organic tomato production will be randomized in a complete randomized block arrangement. The first pre-planting land preparation strategy will consist of conventional practices (i.e., soil tillage and cultivation), and will occur after soil incorporation of a winter cover crop. Plastic mulching beds of 6-ft center to center spacing will be used for tomato seedlings transplanting. The second strategy of pre-planting land preparation will consist of direct planting of tomato seedlings on a 3-ft row spacing, after the laying down of rye, using a roller crimper. The third strategy is a combination of treatments one and two, in which the winter cover crop will be laid down for the entire field using a roller crimper, but only incorporate in the soil in strip beds, that will consist of a narrow (18 in) plastic bed formed for a 3-ft center to center bed spacing.For experiment 2, a one factorial experimental design of two strategies of pre-planting land preparation for sweet corn production will be randomized in a complete randomized block arrangement. The first pre-planting land preparation strategy will consist of the soil incorporation of a winter cover crop (i.e., rye), followed by conventional practices of soil tillage and cultivation. The second pre-planting land preparation strategy will consist of the direct planting of sweet corn seeds after the laying down of rye.Our hypothesis is that different strategies will lead to different impacts on soil health, weeds pressure, and disease/insect. These are the major issues for organic transition fields. Consequently, our proposed strategies may influence vegetable crops growth, yield, and quality parameters.Objective 3:Evaluate the effectiveness of weed control programs for key species populations during the initial years of an organic vegetable transition.A two factorial experiment design of two mulching systems and four weed control treatments during the vegetable season of new organic fields will be randomized in a complete randomized block arrangement. Mulching treatments will consist of using plastic mulching and no mulching (bare ground). Weed control treatments will consist of mechanical control, using a Model CS and/or Eco Weeder cultivator (Hillside Cultivar Company LLC, Lititz, PA), use of organic herbicides, such as Matran 5 (EcoSMART Technologies, Inc., Franklin, TN), Weed Zap (JH Biotech, Inc., Ventura, CA), and Racer (Falcon Lab LLC, Wilmington, DE), a combination of mechanical control and organic herbicides, and no weed control (check).After soil incorporation of a winter cover crop (i.e., rye), the organic field will be tilled and cultivated. Plastic beds will be laid for the plastic mulching treatment, while raised bare ground rows will be prepared for the no mulching treatment. Yellow squash will be hand-transplanted in all plots. Both mechanical and organic herbicide treatments will be weekly applied, while the combined mechanical and organic herbicide treatment will intercalate each in a every other week interval. No control treatment will receive no management and will be used as a check.We hypothesize that combinations of mulching and weed management will differently impact weed pressure, consequently, minimize risks of failure and maximize crop growth and yield.Objective 4:Development of best management practices for organic vegetable transitioning fieldsField experiments of objective 4 will be conducted simultaneously with previous objectives, in which experiments of objectives 1, 2, and 3 will receive an additional treatment consisting of conventional growth of tomato, sweet corn, or yellow squash, as appropriate. The additional treatment will allow for orthogonal contrasts to be used, thus,best treatment combinations from objectives 1, 2, and 3 can be compared against the conventional crop system treatment. Those comparisons will allow us to determine the best management practices for fields in transition from conventional to organic vegetable production. Combinations of best treatments from objectives 1, 2, and 3 will depend on performance of treatments within each objective and stakeholder feedback.Objective 5:Extension, education, and internal project evaluationThis project will use several approaches to convey information generated from proposed activities to our clients, growers, and stakeholders.We will use the stakeholder advisory panel, described in section 3a, to actively involve stakeholders, growers, and researchers with the project team for planning, development, and implementation of outputs. In addition, we will use the Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES) to increase our targeted audience. Our research team, comprised of four members of the Commercial Horticulture Team from ACES, are confident of identifying numerous opportunities to present information in conventional face-to-face format. Thus, we will use the program model proposed in figure 6, which was based on concepts from the Success Outcome Markers in Extensionby Rockwell et al. (2003) and transformational education model by Blewett et al. (2008), to achieve rapid transfer of results. This approach will take a four-step process:technology awareness after identification of appropriate solutions.technology demonstration on research farms.technology refinement (facilitation with key farmers).full technology adoption and impacts.An additional extension approach used relies on communication and marketing principles, and we propose to use the approaches below to add to knowledge infrastructure for long-term results:Digital mediaSocial media for social learning in online grower communitiesFarming Basics Incubator "Pilot" ProgramField demonstration and training for capacity buildingPublications and conferencesProject evaluation will be reported in the form of colorful annual reports, online interactive data charts, andimpact videos. Project evolution will be focused on gathering quantitative as well as qualitative information leading to a mixed-method evaluation approach (Table 1) and utilization-focused evaluations that bring transparency to the entire process. We will use a variety of evaluation techniques (Table 2) that include printed surveys and electronic feedback systems with standardized questionnaires. Data will be retained in spreadsheets and major findings used to improve the deliverables of the project. The detailed evaluation plan is in table 3 and emphasizes the removal of known barriers and documentation of new needs.