Project Overview
Commodities
- Vegetables: beets, carrots, cucurbits, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, turnips
Practices
- Crop Production: cover crops, organic fertilizers
- Education and Training: extension, farmer to farmer, on-farm/ranch research, participatory research
- Farm Business Management: community-supported agriculture, market study
- Production Systems: general crop production
- Soil Management: green manures
- Sustainable Communities: urban/rural integration
Proposal summary:
In the Moscow area, no farmers are currently producing winter crops in the Zone 5 climate. This project will attempt to identify a diversity of winter and summer vegetables to be grown in unheated, unlighted field hoophouses and develop an efficient organic method of producing them. The idea is to fill the need for more locally produced vegetables. Hoophouses, typically of manageable size (in this case 48 feet by 20 feet), can extend the growing season for high value produce, which can improve a small farm’s net income. Their size, mobility and low cost allow growers to invest minimal resources and still produce niche crops that other growers may not be able to grow under normal conditions. This project will test 20 different cold hardy crops during winter by planting them in succession from September through December. The crops will be harvested, measured and sold through the spring. In the summer, six crops that require added protection from the cold will be tested, harvested, weighed and sold.