Trials in Organic Horticulture

Summary

A pre-condition for trials concerning organic vegetable and fruit crops is the EU regulation 834/2007 on organic farming, or any other equivalent regulation in countries outside the EU. Inside the EU, in addition to the public (legally binding) EU standard, private standards of certification bodies defining organic or bio-dynamic production are also relevant. Research should always be conducted on well-established organic land (ideally converted for at least 5 years), and the history of conversion should be documented in the Materials and Methods section of any report (for research studying the process of conversion this is obviously not applicable).
If the research involves methods and products which are currently not part of organic standards (public or private) the protocol has to be discussed with the certification body first. In the case of on-farm trials the farmer also needs to be involved. Prior approval from the certification body and written documentation on the extent of the trials and the new methods tested should always be kept.