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Project Reporting Website
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EARI14-091:
Implementation of Production Technologies and Monitoring for Season Extension Infrastructures (Greenhouses and high tunnels).
Applicant:
Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network Co-operative Ltd.
Project Lead:
Claude Berthélémé
Project Year(s):
2014
-
Status:
Complete
Funding Source:
Canada/New Brunswick Growing Forward 2 (Non-Business Risk Management Programs)
Funding Program:
Enabling Agricultural Research and Innovation
Objective:
To establish 4 on-farm demonstration sites which will be used to highlight the advantages of using highly productive grafted tomato plants, adapted and more productive sweet pepper varieties and crop monitoring practices and tools such as tensiometers, thermometers, and special soil/tissue analysis.
Deliverables:
Distribute transplants to collaborating growers. Grow the grafted tomato transplants on 4 sites. Collect yield data from grafted tomato transplants (6 treatments/farm) and fill-in crop assessment surveys. NBDAAF will monitor the 4 tomato production sites and provide recommendations. Grow the colored sweet pepper transplant varieties on at least 5 sites. Collect crop assessment surveys for the sweet pepper transplant varieties from all sites. Collect data, conduct the data interpretation and prepare the final report.
Summary:
This demonstration project allowed several NB vegetable growers an opportunity to grow and evaluate ten top performing colored sweet pepper cultivars and three grafted and non-grafter tomato cultivars. Through this project, the NBDAAF staff also monitored irrigation, fertilization program and inside and outside temperatures of four greenhouse and tunnel tomato production sites.
Eight growers from across the province grew the colored sweet peppers and provided their assessment for each of the ten colored pepper cultivars by completing a crop assessment survey. The project demonstrated that is possible to successfully grow colored sweet peppers in New Brunswick by selecting early to mid-season cultivars and by growing them in greenhouses and tunnels which allowed for earlier ripening and less bacterial disease pressure. Based on the crop assessment surveys and comments received from growers, the following six cultivars appear to be the most interesting for NB vegetable producers who sell locally and direct to consumers: Triora, Carmen, Cupid, Catriona, Doe Hill, and Red Wing.
Three greenhouse and one high tunnel tomato producers grew three tomato cultivars, Frederik, Sakura, and Sweet Heart on their own roots (non-grafted treatment) and grafted onto a Maxifort rootstock (grafted treatment). The growers recorded the tomato yields from the six grafted and non-grafted tomato treatments. The grafted tomato plants demonstrated improved crop vigor, vegetative growth, height, and often yield. At all sites, the grafted Frederik and Sweet Heart seemed to outperform the yield from the non-grafted plants by 9 to 50%. The Maxifort rootstock had a more robust and healthier root system than the ones produced by the non-grafted Sakura and Frederik. On one particular site, the benefit of grafting with the disease-resistant rootstock was evident. The non-grafted Frederik was severly infected by the corky root soil borne disease caused by Pyrenochaeta lycopersici, while the Frederik plants grafted on the Maxifort rootstock did not show any signs of disease.
The same greenhouse and tunnel tomato growers were selected for the greenhouse monitoring component of the project. NBDAAF staff installed and monitored tensiometers and temperature data loggers to monitor indoor and outdoor temperature. NBDAAF staff also conducted soil and plant tissue sampling to monitor the fertilization program of each farm through the season.
It was quickly determined that the tensiometers used to monitor soil moisture and manage irrigation were not effective for the sites because the soil moisture throughout the beds was not uniform enough to show coherent readings. Additional drip lines and more frequent watering were recommended in order to meet the tomato plant’s water requirements.
Regarding fertilization, although the basic soil tests taken prior to planting indicated a high level of fertility in all sites, only one operation was able to supply enough nutrients to meet the plant’
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