Vegetable Production

1
Vegetable Production

• Objectives of today's lecture
• Learn the basic principles of vegetable
  production
• Understand the different markets for vegetable
  produce

2
Vegetable Production

• One of the four branches of horticulture
  production
• Olericulture - vegetable production
• Floriculture
• Pomology
• Ornamental horticulture

3
What is a vegetable?

• Webster's Dictionary defines vegetable as
• a herbaceous plant cultivated for food, such as
  the cabbage, potato, bean
• also, the edible part or parts of such plants, as
  prepared for market or table
• Remember that many vegetables are botanical
  fruits - seed-bearing structures such as
  tomatoes, zucchini

4
Classification of vegetables

• There are many different ways to classify
  vegetable crops
• The temperature at which these crops prefer to
  grow
• Cool season crops (spinach, broccoli, peas, etc.)
• Warm season crops (sweet corn, melon, tomato)

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Classification of vegetables

• The plant organ that is consumed
• root (beet, carrot, turnip)
• stem (asparagus, kohlrabi)
• flower (broccoli)
• tuber (potato)
• immature fruit (cucumbers, sweet corn)
• mature fruit (watermelon, tomato)
• leaf (e.g. cabbage, lettuce, spinach)
• seed (e.g. bean)

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Classification of vegetables

• The culinary use of the vegetable
• Salad crops (lettuce, endive, arugula)
• Root crops (carrot, parsnip, beet)
• Pulses (beans - fresh, dry, canned)
• Herbs for flavoring (basil, oregano, parsley,
  cilantro)
• Carbohydrate source (potato, cassava, sweet
  potato)

7
Annuals or perennials?

• Most vegetable crops are grown as annuals
• Flexible system, able to alter production (crops,
  varieties planted) from year to year
• Compare this to fruit production systems
• A small number of vegetables are grown as
  perennials
• asparagus, artichoke

8
Propagation

• Most vegetables are propagated by seed
• In some cases, the crop is grown as an annual,
  but seed are produced in the second year
  (biennial), e.g. carrot, onion
• Some vegetables are vegetatively propagated
• Irish potato, sweet potato, asparagus, rhubarb

9
Markets for vegetable crops

• Fresh market vegetables
• Supermarket
• Farmer's Market
• Road side stand, U-pick operation
• Organic production
• Home garden
• Approximately 50 of U.S. households grow
  vegetables

10
Markets for vegetable crops

• Processed vegetables
• Canned
• Frozen
• Pickled
• Dried
• "minimally processed" prepackaged salads,
  carrots rapid growth in the market for these
  value-added crops

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Where are vegetables grown?
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Why does California dominate vegetable production?

• Rich, fertile soils
• Variety of climatic conditions
• Central Valley has long, warm summer growing
  season
• Coastal regions, such as the Salinas Valley, are
  well suited for production of cool season crops
  (lettuce, broccoli, etc.) all year

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Why does California dominate vegetable production?

• Dry climate reduces incidence of plant diseases
• Federal irrigation projects have provided
  reliable supplies of inexpensive water
• Traditional availability of migrant farm workers
• Research and development, both at the University
  of California and in the private sector, have
  supported the industry

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What are the most important vegetables in
production?

• 1997 data for fresh and processed vegetables
• 6 bell peppers 503 million
• 5 sweet corn 646 m
• 4 onions 648 m
• 3 lettuce 1,185 m
• 2 tomatoes 1,852 m
• 1 potatoes 2,500 m (est.)

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Important factors for vegetable production

• Vegetable crops have specific requirements for
  successful production
• Climate
• Temperature
• cool- and warm-season crops
• Rainfall
• can be compensated for by irrigation, and
  preferred in some circumstances
• Sunlight and day length (less important)

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Important factors for vegetable production

• Vegetable crops have specific requirements for
  successful production
• Soils
• Sandy loams and loams are preferred
• "Muck soils" that are high in organic matter are
  also widely used if available, especially for
  high value fresh market crops

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Important factors for vegetable production

• Vegetables are a high value crop
• More intensively managed than agronomic crops
• Irrigation, fertilization, weed and pest control
  are all required for success
• Both mechanical and manual harvesting
• Critical post-harvest handling

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Cropping systems

• Most vegetable production in the U.S. relies on
  intensive monoculture
• Geared to mechanization and specialization,
  favors large operators
• Crop rotation helps control diseases, weeds,
  insects preserves soil nutrients
• Alternative systems used elsewhere
• Intercropping, sequential cropping

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Production practices

• Soil preparation
• Conventional tillage
• plowing and disking for seed bed preparation
• raised beds and plastic mulching
• Conservation tillage
• planting into crop residue to reduce soil erosion
• weed and soil temperature problems

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Production practices

• Planting
• Direct seeding
• Seed bed preparation is critical
• Requires loner growing season
• Indirect seeding - transplanting
• Extends growing season
• promotes early maturation

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Production practices

• Fertilizer application
• Depends on soil type, soil analysis and crop
  requirements
• Timing and site of application
• "starter solutions" for seedlings, transplants
• "side dressing" application for established crops
• foliar application, "fertigation"

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Production practices

• Irrigation
• Important for high value vegetable crops
• Timely irrigation increases both crop yield and
  quality
• Efficient use of water reduces costs and
  minimizes other problems
• Many different methods available for irrigation

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Production practices

• Weed control
• Weeds compete for resources, harbor pests, reduce
  crop quality
• Many methods to control weeds
• Cultivation
• Cover crops
• Mulches
• Herbicides

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Production practices

• Disease and pest control
• Microbes and insects
• Genetic resistance
• Important goal in plant breeding
• Integrated pest management
• Uses a variety of approaches to keep damage below
  economic thresholds
• Pesticides

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Production practices

• Harvest
• Mechanical
• Requires specialized equipment, production
  methods
• Manual
• Labor intensive, expensive
• The early crop gets top

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Specialized production

• Greenhouse production
• More widespread in the 1950s, 1960s, now in
  decline in the U.S.
• Factors for decline include energy costs, rapid
  transportation system
• Still prevalent in Europe, especially in the
  Netherlands

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Post-harvest handling

• Practices that reduce losses in quality and
  quantity of horticultural crops between harvest
  and consumption
• Losses are estimated at 5-25 in developed world,
  25-50 elsewhere

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Post-harvest handling

• Living tissues are continuously deteriorating
  after harvest, changing in
• Appearance
• Texture
• Flavor
• Nutritional value
• Safety

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Post-harvest handling

• Techniques to reduce post-harvest losses for
  fresh market vegetables include
• Gentle harvesting methods
• Cleaning, sorting and waxing
• Rapid cooling
• Low temperature storage
• Controlled atmosphere storage
• Rapid and secure transportation

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Marketing

• Many producers grow vegetable crops under
  contract to processors
• Without a market, even the best quality produce
  will not make a profit
• Consumer demands change rapidly
• Growing demand for "organic" produce and
  prepackaged convenience foods
• Farmers markets provide an outlet for local
  growers

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Summary

• Vegetable production is a diverse branch of
  horticulture
• Success depends on applying knowledge of
  horticultural techniques as well as understanding
  the markets for these products
• Strive for five!