Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** organic agriculture, long…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** organic agriculture, long associated with sustainability, continues to seek practices that improve soil health and fertility. While organic farming promotes many sustainability practices, building and maintaining soil organic matter remains challenging for organic systems in the southeast U.S. Due to the mild, humid climate, weathered soils, and heavy reliance on tillage. In this context, enhanced rock weathering (ERW) emerges as a promising scale-neutral strategy for improving soil health. When added to soils, crushed silicate minerals weather over time, releasing plant-available nutrients and cations. ERW also acts as a lime alternative, raising soil PH. North carolina has active quarries producing ERW as a by-product and organic growers are already applying IT to their fields. However, this is a nascent practice and there is currently no information on ERW in organic systems in the U.S.this proposal is a collaboration with north carolina state university and north carolina agricultural and technical state university. The objectives of this project are: 1) evaluate the agronomic and soil fertility impacts of substituting lime for ERW in both organic row crop (12 site years) and small-scale organic vegetable (6 site years); 2) estimate weathering rates and nutrient release for southeast soils; 3) measure nutrient use efficiency and loss pathways as impacted by ERW application on organic amendments and organic fertilizers; and 4) empower organic stakeholders seeking to adopt ERW through extension activities.