Variety Trials for an Organic Production of Sweet Corn, Sweet Potatoes, and Cowpeas.

Organic agriculture has been growing steadily over the past decade in the United States, especially in California, the Midwest, and the Northeast. However, in the southeastern United States, organic production has been hampered by a lack of adapted organic seeds. A study was conducted at the George Washington Carver Experiment Station at Tuskegee University with the aim of screening four varieties each of sweet corn [(Zea mays var saccharata) Double Standard, Luscious, Silver Queen, Sugar Pearl], sweet potatoes [(Ipomoea batatas) Covington, J6/66, NCC-58, TU Purple], and cowpeas [(Vigna unguiculata) Brown Sugar Crowder Pea, California Black-eyed Pea, Mississippi Crowder Pea, Pink-eyed Purple Hull Pea]. The experiment was designed as a randomized complete block design with four replications. The crops were preceded by hairy vetch (Vicia villosa) which was planted as a cover crop, harvested, and incorporated into soil prior to planting. Results showed that Silver Queen had the highest yield (4.35 T ha^-1), followed by Sugar Pearl (3.07 T ha^-1) while Double Standard yielded the least (0.82 T ha^-1). For the sweet potato varieties, J6/66 has the highest yield (16.7 T ha^-1), followed by TU Purple (16.0 T ha^-1). For the cowpea yields, California Black-eyed peas had the highest yield with 4.13 T ha^-1, followed by Pink-eyed Purple Hull pea (3.95 T ha^-1), while Brown Sugar Crowder pea had the least with 1.52 T ha^-1. These results demonstrated that none of these varieties of sweet corn, sweet potato and cowpea are adapted to organic agriculture in the conditions of the Southeast U.S. This indicates that variety screening is important in promoting organic agriculture in the Southeast U.S. With high costs associated with production, crop yields in organic agriculture need to be optimized if organic farming is to take off in the southeast.