Researcher, Ph.D.
418 643-2380
ext 420
The project will employ four experimental approaches to compare, with or without pesticides, the impact of three different crop rotation protocols that differ with respect to the diversity gradient of the plants sown. A conventional protocol will include a cash crop. The green manure rotation protocol will include one or two green manure crops amid the main crop. The ecologically intensive protocol will include a number of green manure crops. Green manure crops generate systemic ecobenefits that improve soil health and boost the biodiversity of bio-organisms instrumental to crop health. This greater diversity reduces weed incidence and, consequently, the need for herbicide applications. The results of the four experimental approaches—along with a database of 280 potato crop soil microbiomes, for which the yields and incidence of a number of soil diseases have been measured—will be used to fine-tune a soil microbiome monitoring method. This method and the results of the economic assessment of the protocols studied will serve as decision-making tools for farmers and agronomists.
From 2019 to 2022
Project duration
Market gardening
Activity areas
Soil health, Pest, weed, and disease control, Laboratory analyzes
Services
The methodology developed in this project will help farmers and agronomists reduce herbicide use.
Ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l'Alimentation du Québec | Carrefour industriel et expérimental de Lanaudière (CIEL) | Centre de recherche Les Buissons | Cultures H. Dolbec | Pro-Champs 2001 | SCV Agrologie | Université Laval
This project aims to develop an accessible and user-friendly web application that let stakeholders search the IRDA potato soil database, one of the largest in Canada, to visualize the impact of growing practices and protocols on the biological, physicochemical, and agronomic characteristics of soils cultivated with different cropping systems.
Researcher: Richard Hogue
The goal of this project was to measure the impact of irrigation management on nitrogen uptake and available soil nitrogen on several cultivars under commercial production conditions.
Researcher: Christine Landry
This project seeks to create farmer partnerships in which participants work on implementing a three-year forage crop rotation protocol in potato and field crop fields.
Researcher: Richard Hogue