Lee-Ann Hill, Rocky Mount Seed Alliance
This project investigates 20 promising ancient and heritage grain varieties to measure performance for farm scale organic growing conditions and will increase available seed of these 20 unique varieties to a minimum of 20 pounds each in 2020. Data will be collected on weed suppression, lodging, disease, and pest pressure as well as yield and height and environmental conditions at two sites- Ketchum, Idaho and Paonia, Colorado. This on-farm research will be supplemented by data collected through Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance’s grassroots ‘Heritage Grain Trial Program’ (HGTP) and via a new field app. The HGRP not only activates peer-to-peer discovery of regionally adapted germplasm, but also preserves a living diversity of crop genetics.
