Vegetables

This project investigates a number of problems related to organic vegetable production.

On farms with a significant proportion of vegetables or other commercial crops in the rotation, nitrogen supply presents a problem. For this reason several practical investigations are in hand to examine how different cover crops can be combined with late harvested vegetables. Other studies are examining how different green manure crops can influence the total nitrogen budget and the timing of nitrogen applications. The objective is to give producers a better basis for selecting green manure crops to reduce leaching losses and secure a high nitrogen supply for the succeeding vegetable crop.

In organic farming, rapid plant establishment is important for promoting the tolerance of the crop to pests and diseases and improving the likelihood of effective weed control. Hand weeding is very expensive for many organic vegetables, and methods that can reduce these costs by preventing weed emergence or controlling weed growth, especially in crop rows, are therefore being sought. Experiments are now in hand in which methods of promoting plant growth are combined with weed control measures to develop a coherent strategy to reduce the weed problem.

Investigations are also being made on the ability of cover crops to reduce the incidence of soil borne diseases. These are being conducted as field studies on infected land, where practical options and responses can be monitored. Soil and plant samples from the field studies will be used to examine some of the mechanisms behind the disease suppressive effects of cover crops, in order to get a better understanding of the problem and suggest practical solutions.

Summary
Publishing

Project title
II.2 Vegetables

Project leader
Kristian Thorup-Kristensen, Danish Institute of Agricultural Science, Department of Fruit, Vegetable and Food Science, Research Centre Aarslev,
Kirstinebjergvej 6, DK 5792 Aarslev
Tel: +45 6599 1766, Fax: +45 6599 2598
E-mail: Kristian.ThorupKristensen@agrsci.dk

Project participants
Kai Grevsen, Lars Bødker and Bo Melander, Danish Institute of Agricultural Science