Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** managing soil fertility, crop…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** managing soil fertility, crop nutrition, and weed and soil-borne diseases are some of the biggest challenges that organic vegetable growers face. One of the difficulties in managing plant nutrition in organic production systems occurs due to a mismatch between the nutrient release rate of organic fertilizers and peak plant nutrient demand. For organic vegetable growers, this mismatch means nutrient release from organic fertilizers that often cannot supply enough nutrients to support periods of rapid crop growth, resulting in the loss of yield or decreased crop quality. Further, the aggressive nature of weeds and diseases and limited means for their management in organic systems, results in substantial loss of marketable crop yield worldwide up to 45-95% and 21.5% yield losses to weeds and diseases, respectively. All these factors make organic vegetable systems less productive and highly variable from one growing season to another. The proposed project aims to improve the yield and profitability of organic vegetable production by developing organic fertilizer formulations using new organic materials from manure processing and rendered materials, with higher nutrient use efficiency and for weed and soil-borne disease management. The proposed project will develop new fertilizer formulations using new manured-based organic products and rendered materials as a base matrix and will employ various natural amendments to increase the retention of mineralized nutrients in the soil for crop uptake for a longer duration, thus facilitating higher nutrient use efficiency. Further, the project team will pair the new fertilizer formulations with novel plasticulture to utilize the carbon in the standardized organic fertilizers for controlling the weeds and soil-borne diseases in organic vegetable crops through anaerobic soil disinfestation (soil disinfestation by creating anaerobic conditions with organic carbon amendments and irrigation under plastic mulch). The project team proposes to produce a pelletized material of standardized fertilizer formulations and evaluate the impact of new fertilizer formulations + novel plastic mulch on crop nutrient use efficiency, soil health, nitrogen losses, weed and soil-borne disease management, and economic feasibility of using new fertilizer formulations and novel plasticulture. The project team will further promote the adoption of new fertilizer formulations and management practices by communicating the research results and guidelines to stakeholders, scientists, and industry professionals in the southeastern and other regions of the US, through extensive education, extension, and outreach program.