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Florida Sustainable Agriculture

Florida Sustainable Agriculture

Research

Partnership to Explore Integrated Systems for Sustainable High Tunnel Organic Vegetable Production in the Southeast Region

Three-bay high tunnel on certified organic land
Three-bay high tunnel on certified organic land at the UF/IFAS Plant Science Research and Education Unit in Citra, FL (PC: K. Sattanno)

Research Objectives

  1. Build and strengthen new and existing partnerships with organic producers and other stakeholders by involving them in project planning, brainstorming, and outcome delivery.
  2. Identify the critical stakeholder needs for organic high tunnel system research, education, and extension through a multi-state organic grower survey.
  3. Develop a multi-regional integrated project proposal on organic high tunnel vegetable production systems to address the critical stakeholder needs and priority areas for research, education, and extension identified in this planning project.

Project Details

This work is supported by Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative grant no. 2016-51300-25738 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. View the annual progress report.

  • Activities

    Interviews

    We completed in-depth interviews with a group of eight organic farmers with extensive experience using high tunnels. Participants identified six related sets of decisions that organic high tunnel users must make and for which there are few, if any, science-based recommendations:

    1. Decisions about the cropping system (crop selection, cover crops, and crop rotations)
    2. Management of the high tunnel environment through ventilation and heating
    3. Soil and nutrient management
    4. Pest and disease management
    5. Economics
    6. Attracting pollinators and beneficial insects

    Follow-Up Questionnaire 

    We summarized the major needs expressed by the expert panel and sent a questionnaire to the panel members. We asked them to rank the six broad topical areas in terms of importance as an area for research and to identify the three most important crops to include in the research. Respondents clarified two points:

    1. Pollinators and beneficial insects are a subset of the topic pest and disease management.
    2. Economic issues are specific to each key decision that growers make and are a major factor in assessing the biological research.

    Comprehensive Questionnaire

    We developed and distributed a questionnaire to all organic vegetable growers using high tunnels in Florida and Georgia. We asked respondents to rank specific research topics on a scale of 1 (not at all important) to 5 (extremely important). The findings will direct our research objectives in future high-tunnel projects focused on improving organic vegetable production and management.

    High Tunnel and Organic Vegetable Workshop

    We hosted a high tunnel and organic vegetable workshop at the University of Florida in 2017.

    Topics included:

    • Shading nets as a means to reduce heat stress in bell pepper
    • High tunnel organic spinach production research trial results
    • Trap crop strategies for southern green stink bug (Nezara viridula)
    • Trapping true bugs: Preliminary summary of findings for organic tomatoes in Florida
    • Conservation biological control
    • Understanding high tunnels and how they can help me
    • Organic certification and cost share program
    • High tunnel tomato cultivar trial for early spring production
    • Opportunities and challenges for high tunnel organic vegetable production in Florida
    • High tunnel organic tomato production research trial results

    Grant Proposal Development

    We developed and submitted a grant proposal addressing organic vegetable production in high tunnels using stakeholder input we received throughout this project.

    Presentations

    Sattanno, K., Swisher, M. E., Colee, J., Zhao, X., Gao, Z., and Black, Z. (2018) Growing High Tunnel Use for Organic Vegetable Production in the Southeast. American Society of Horticultural Sciences Annual Conference. High Tunnel Planning ASHS 2018 Poster

  • Team Members

    University of Florida

    • Xin Zhao, Ph.D. (Lead Project Investigator)    
    • Jeff K. Brecht, Ph.D.
    • Nicholas S. Dufault, Ph.D.    
    • Zhifeng Gao, Ph.D.
    • Mickie Swisher, Ph.D.    
    • Blake R. Thaxton

    University of Georgia

    • Suzanne O’Connell, Ph.D.

    Florida A&M University

    • Alejandro Bolques, Ph.D.

    USDA-ARS

    • Susie Legaspi, Ph.D.    
    • Robert L. Meagher, Ph.D.

    Additional Collaborators

    • Florida Organic Growers    
    • Georgia Organics