Research Library
EFAO’s research library is an open access resource where you can find all of EFAO’s research protocols, reports and publications, and other on-farm research guides.
To try to hasten emergence and improve yield of no-till planted spring cereals, Ken compared liquid amendment, biological amendment, a combination of amendments and a no-amendment control.
In a Nutshell
- There was no observable difference in emergence due to amendments.
- There was no significant difference in yield among the different treatments.
To further explore no-till techniques, Matt compared no-till tomatoes three ways: compost + landscape fabric, compost + cover crop + landscape fabric, and compost + cardboard + landscape fabric.
In a Nutshell
- He detected no difference in cumulative or monthly tomato yield among the three methods.
- He also detected no difference in water infiltration, an indicator of soil health, among the three methods.
- This data indicates that adding cardboard or cover crops to compost and landscape fabric does not improve yield for no-till tomatoes; and cardboard and cover crops may be a useful means of further building soil without negative effects on yield.
Given the incredible importance of fungi in our world, Dianne was curious if inoculants improved lettuce and onions yields, as these two species are known to grow in relationship with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF).
In a Nutshell
- In 2019, she used AMF inoculants for the first time and observed particularly large, healthy lettuce and onions.
- In 2020, she set-up a randomized and replicated trial comparing two inoculants to uninoculated controls for Ariana, Cantarix, Nevada and Skyphos lettuce and Patterson onion. While they were also large and healthy, Dianne detected no effects of the inoculants yield.
- She wonders if the design of the trial was flawed because she unsuspectingly inoculated and/or resuscitated the mycorrhizal community of her whole garden in 2019.
Heather compared a standard protein ration with 16% protein to a reduced protein ration with 13% protein to see how her heritage Chantecler chickens responded during the grow-out period.
In a Nutshell
- In 2019, Heather tracked the weight of three cohorts of chickens, taking more than 1,000 weight measurements of individual chickens.
- There were no consistent differences in the weight of chickens on the two protein rations throughout the grow-out period.
- There was also no detectable effect of reduced protein on finished live weight or dressed weight.
- In 2020, Heather continued to use the reduced protein ration and would like to continue the trial over several seasons for more confidence.
To reduce tillage for crops that are direct seeded, Jason tested different composts in a no-till deep bed system in one trial each of lettuce and carrots.
In a Nutshell
- The substrates for deep compost mulch differed with respect to growing lettuce and carrots, but bare ground control produced the highest seedling count for lettuce and the greatest yield for carrots.
- Optimizing the use of deep bed compost requires a systems approach since seeding depth and irrigation rate, etc. differ by substrate. It was not practical, however, for Jason to test each substrate in a systems- context which limits the applicability of these results.
To prevent chlorosis in chestnuts, Derick compared broadcasting and localized application of nutrient amendments to no amendment controls. After a year of growth, he measured tree height and leaf nutrient status.
In a Nutshell
- Derick detected no difference in plant health or leaf nutrient status between the two amendment methods. Given the extra labour involved with the localized treatment, he will not broadcast any amendments moving forward.
- He detected higher leaf potassium levels in the amended trees, which is important for iron availability in the plant.
Eric compared five methods of preparing fallow land for vegetable production with respect to soil regeneration and cost to implement.
In a Nutshell
- Cover crops with micronutrient amendments increased active carbon, a sensitive indicator of soil health and soil regeneration potential.
- Micronutrient amendment alone did not increase active carbon; and Eric saw no added benefit with respect to soil health of adding chicken manure or woody compost with cover crops.
- Balancing cost and soil health benefits, Eric will focus on micronutrient application and full season cover crops in areas that require regeneration.
As a follow-up to their 2019 multi-farm trial, we compared 5 large tomato varieties and 4 cherry tomato varieties grown by grafting onto four different rootstocks and an ungrafted control.
In a Nutshell
- The best choice of rootstock was specific to the scion, with some rootstocks producing no improvement
or even reducing yield for some varieties of scion. - Compared to ungrafted plants, Caiman F1 large tomatoes had great yield and profitability when grafted DR0141TX rootstock.
- Preliminary data suggest that only Sakura cherry tomato may benefit from grafting on Fortanimo or Estanimo, but more replicates are needed to be confident.
- Preliminary data suggest that grafting “heirloom- like” hybrid varieties tested does not confer a yield advantage, but that open pollinated Striped German maybe benefit from being grafted onto Fortanimo.
To identify the best performing crosses of sweet potato for organic farming systems in the Ottawa area, Kate, Erin and Lise-Anne compared nine new crosses of sweet potato and one check variety (Covington) in a replicated and randomized trial across three farms.
In a Nutshell
- They identified three varieties that they think are definitely worth continuing to grow and observe, and another two “runner-up” crosses that are alsopromising.
Amaranth is climate-resilient and nutrient-dense, and is an important Indigenous plant of the Americas. To learn which varieties of amaranth are best suited for their region of southern Ontario, Ronaldo and Myriam compared five varieties of amaranth in an unreplicated screening trial.
In a Nutshell
- They observed differences among the varieties in germination, flowering times, flowering patters and yield and think that Grain Amaranth from Richters Herbs and Atitlan Dorado from IMAP Guatemala merit consideration for a replicated trial.
To help him optimize pasture growth, Andy assessed soil nutrient status from the top slope, side slope and bottom slope of a 50–year old pasture and a hay field that he will start grazing in 2021.
IN A NUTSHELL
- Organic matter was higher in the older pasture but did not change significantly with topography.
- Potassium, phosphorus and iron were also higher in the old pasture and potassium was higher on the top slope. Andy observed variations in manganese and copper for reasons that are unknown.
- Andy’s observations of better soil health at the top of the hills weren’t supported by the basic assessment of soil nutrient status used in this study.
Key Findings
Continuing our work that began in 2016, members of the SeedWorks Plant Breeding Club worked together to breed and release an early, blocky sweet red pepper with good flavour that is adapted to ecological growing systems in southern Ontario. We continue to select for a yellow sweet bell pepper for release in fall 2021/winter 2022.
This trial was multi-year. Earlier reports and protocols can be found using the links below.
Earlier reports
Earlier protocols
This study aimed to find out whether adding biochar to an engineered green roof soil blend would ameliorate the soil in order to successfully grow spray-free vegetables at similar yields to the Farm’s older plots with more productive soil.
In a Nutshell
- Farmers found that vegetables grew well in both the control and biochar- amended plots when compared to crops that grew poorly in the originally installed engineered soil.
- However, biochar amendment did not significantly improve crop quality, yield, or soil health during the first year of application.
In a Nutshell
- Orford yielded the highest among the three varieties in the trial.
- Bullet had the highest test weight among the three varieties, although its yield was the most variable.
- The addition of N in a side-by- side unreplicated trial showed a promising return on investment among all three varieties but more work and replication is needed to verify and reinforce these findings.
NB: This report was updated January 2023.
As a continuation of their no-till broccoli trial in 2020 using cover crops, Ryan and Isabelle tested no-till broccoli using landscape fabric in 2021.
In a Nutshell
- Broccoli grown using the no-till treatment of landscape fabric had lower yield and required more labour.
- Despite poor performance of no-till broccoli using mulches, Ryan and Isabelle still believe that fall broccoli in northeastern Ontario can be grown successfully in a no- till system, and will likely try no-till broccoli without a mulch system (cover crop or fabric) in 2022.
The growers’ objective was to document the best green head lettuce for summer production across different farms throughout southern Ontario during the 2021 season.
In a Nutshell
- Nevada was the top variety with respect to vigor, flavour, longest harvest, disease hardiness, and germination in this trial.
- Muir was a runner-up to Nevada, but did have some germination issues and did not size up as well.
- Concept and Encino were the growers’ least favorite varieties this year.
- Overall, these results are consistent with the 2020 lettuce variety trial.
To find a system for growing consistent lettuce in the heat of the summer in eastern Ontario, Luke and Dana compared different methods of altering the microclimate for lettuce including black landscape fabric (control); white landscape fabric, and white landscape fabric with shade cloth.
In a Nutshell
- Luke and Dana did not have the statistical power to detect differences in lettuce yield among treatments.
- From their observations, they will grow more mid-summer lettuce to help increase quantity available; and they will grow it on white landscape fabric to help with quality.
- They will continue to use black fabric during the spring and fall.
- They also plan to continue to experiment with shade cloth for 1-2 weeks post transplant during peak heat.
The growers’ objective was to document the best short season northern grain amaranth variety for production across different farms throughout southern Ontario during the 2021 growing season.
In a Nutshell
- Golden Giant, Opopeo, and Atitlan Dorado all performed well and were overall favourites among the growers.
- The Grain Amaranth from Richters Herbs was the growers least preferred variety and didn’t perform as well as the other varieties but ranked top in flavour for growers.
- Despite this, growers are interested in adapting this variety because of its good flavour, early flowering, and wide genetics which they hope means they can work with the population to create an ideal variety for their farm.
- Growers’ enjoyed learning about grain amaranth production and its story but more work is needed to determine if production at the small and mid-sized scale is feasible with the harvesting and processing labour time.
In a Nutshell
- Jeff found no difference in onion yield (weight) between the tillage treatments.
- Seeing no adverse effects from using only shallow tillage gives Jeff confidence to try more minimum tillage for bed preparation in the future.
- Yankee variety outperformed Norstar by an average of 20% more by weight.
In 2021, Dean assessed 6 varieties of quinoa under organic management practices. The goal was to choose the best suited variety for future large-scale production and direct market sales to local consumers.
In a Nutshell
- Quinoa is a slow growing, non-competitive plant that can be a finicky crop to produce!
- It’s hard to differentiate between closely related weeds such as lamb’s quarters during the first 8 weeks of production.
- In a direct seeded quinoa crop, traditional large scale organic weeding practices were challenging, and the use of a rotary hoe was deemed impractical.
- Buffy and Brightest Brilliant Rainbow were the best performers in this trial under 2021 conditions.