Vegetable Research
Bio-Intensive Cover Cropping for Vegetable Crop Production
Cover cropping has potential to improve soil health and crop yield/quality by the addition of organic matter. Cover crops can be seen as a "Grow in Place" source of organic matter with reduced food safety concerns for contamination of fresh produce. The objective of this multi-year study is to compare three different cover crop regimens to a clean fallow system to determine each treatment's effect on soil health, crop yield, and marketability.
Fertilizer and Cultivar Evaluation in a Hydroponic System
Hydroponic, a method to grow plants in a nutrient solution without soil in a controlled environment, has various benefits over traditional field production like high growth rate, production increase up to 10 times, production on unsuitable land, no weeds, and less abiotic stress due to the environment. Hydroponics permits good control over plant growth and development by proper climate management and use of well-balanced nutrient solution that meet the nutritional requirement of the crop and cultivar. So, it is important that the appropriate fertilizer is utilized to avoid the buildup of the toxins, nutrition abnormalities, and to increase yields. There are many fertilizers available in market, but crop specific information is lacking on which products work best for different crops.
Integrated Cucurbit Crop Scheduling Pest and Pollinator Management
Department of Entomology and Plant pathology along with Horticulture and landscape Architecture are working on studies with summer squash. Summer squash is a popular vegetable crop both for commercial fresh market farms and home gardens. The primary insect pest of all squash is squash bug (Anasa tristis) which has a devastating effect on squash crops. Two different types of studies are underway with row-covers. One is focused on opening of one type of row-cover at different times and the second study is utilizing three different types of row-covers with daily opening for pollinator access. The second year of these studies is currently underway.
Colored Shade Netting
Research will evaluate colored shade cloth for hydroponic production to compare yield and quality to support local market production. To control heat during the summertime, growers use black shade netting to cool the greenhouse. Knowing that plants respond to specific wavelengths, colored shade netting technology has begun to emerge but is not widely tested in the U.S. despite other countries reporting longer stems, improved yield, and more compact plants depending on the species and shade netting color used. This research will evaluate two different species response to three different colored shade nettings. Data will be collected on plant growth to make a recommendation on the value of adapting an already common method used in production of the crops.
Vegetable Trial Reports
The Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture and co-operating departments annually conduct experiments on field vegetable production. Data are reported for multiple aspects of each study and may include information on planting, harvesting, crop-quality, seed sources, and other related factors. Reports present data in text, table, and photo format providing up-to-date information on field research results. Results support OSU recommendations on vegetable production and are a valuable information resource for producers. Trial reports are available annually from 2001 through 2019 with each year's report available as a PDF that can be downloaded or viewed on-line. Vegetable Trial Reports