Research in the Department of Vegetable Crops

Project start: 01.03.2023
Project end: 28.02.2026
Sponsor: Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Federal Office for Agriculture and Food

Project start: 01.01.2022
Project end: 31.12.2024
Sponsor: Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Federal Office for Agriculture and Food

The focus of the BMEL/BÖLN founded HortiPrimed project is on abiotic stress pre-treatments as an alternative plant protection method for sustainable horticultural plant production. HortiPrimed will investigate and establish procedures involving abiotic stress pre-treatments as an alternative plant protection method for sustainable horticultural crop production. Dosed stress pre-treatments can result in faster and stronger defence reactions to reoccurring stress and, by this improve stress tolerance ('priming'). Such priming effects involve desirable cross-reactions leading to broader tolerance against abiotic and biotic environmental stresses and pathogens. In an interdisciplinary collaboration, HortiPrimed will develop procedures for controlled priming stimulation of juvenile plants to provide sustainable protection during the later production phase in the greenhouse.

Project start: 01.02.2020
Project end: 31.05.2023
Sponsor: Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture

The decision support system GeoSenSys is designed as a GIS-based web application for open field vegetable production to support the user by providing coupled recommendations for site-specific irrigation and nitrogen (N) fertilization. The objective of the project is to develop an Artificial Neuronal Network for Irrigation (ANNI) based on spectral reflectance of the model crop spinach and measured soil, plant and environmental parameters of georeferenced fields. Irrigation demand is derived by combining crop water balance with Geisenheim Irrigation Scheduling, plant parameters and spectral vegetation indices. Scientific verification of the modeled water demand is then performed by measuring current evapotranspiration using eddy covariance analyses. To enable the coupling of irrigation and N fertilization decisions, a N-mineralization model is developed and linked to the irrigation model. This results in simple decision making for cultivation management in vegetable production. Through the small-scale assessment of irrigation and N fertilization demand, this project contributes to resource-efficient and sustainable vegetable production.

Project start: 01.04.2016
Project end: 31.03.2019
Sponsor: European Commission, Hessian Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection, Agriculture and Consumer Protection

Yellow Wilting has been a problem in cultivation of corn salad for many years. Many abiotic and biotic factors have been excluded as causes. Yet, respective organisms and control measures are not identified. The project within the framework of EIP Agri aims at identifying the cause of Yellow Wilting with the help of metagenomic and metabolomic analyses and developing effective control strategies. Initial results show that solarization as soil disinfestation is efficient in inhibiting Yellow Wilting.

Project start: 01.01.2016
Project end: 31.12.2018
Sponsor: Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture

Within the project GSEHEN, the Department for Vegetable Crops of the Geisenheim University develops a practically applicable FOSS implementation of an irrigation decision support system based on the Geisenheim Irrigation Scheduling (GS). The major goals of this project are the theoretical quality assurance of GS parameters, and the formulation of prerequisites for a practically and scientifically sound implementation of GS in the software. The theoretical proof of GS parameters is lead via experiments using the eddy covariance technique. With this meteorological method possible differences between estimated and actually measured evapotranspiration of plant canopy in open field can be assessed. For a sound software implementation of GS, the main tasks are the aggregation and publication of GS parameters in the form of an openly available online database as well as the documentation and implementation of the algorithms and parameters needed for software based realization of GS. The software and documentations will be publicized under an open source license. This is to guide and promote high-quality implementations of GS in any kind of software which match the general scientific claim. With this, the project GSEHEN secures the practical application and scientific foundation of GS for future operation.

Project start: 01.01.2016
Project end: 31.12.2017
Sponsor: Hessen State Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts

The influence of CO2 concentration and nitrogen form on two varieties of rucola (Diplotaxis tenuifolia) is investigated in climatic chambers. Plant physiological parameters, yield and valuable compounds are analyzed.

Project start: 01.01.2014
Project end: 31.12.2017
Sponsor: Hessen State Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts

Within the FACE2FACE experiment the effects of climate change on agricultural ecosystems such as grassland and specialized crops are investigated. For the cultivation of specialized crops, particular emphasis is placed on plant physiology as well as ingredient composition of harvested material. In the subproject “AP 3.1 Ingredients & product quality – vegetables” the effects of elevated CO2 in interaction with reduced water supply on ingredient composition of spinach, radish and cucumber are investigated.

Project start: 01.01.2012
Project end: 31.12.2016
Sponsor: Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture

Improved methods of irrigation and irrigation scheduling in open-field vegetable production may help to ensure the efficient use of water, energy and labour, high product qualities and quantities. Twelve vegetable farms in two German growing regions with high irrigation demand were intensively advised to improve the efficiency of irrigation and its demand for energy. Regional workshops for interested farmers multiple and publish the experiences of the farmers involved in the pilot project.

Project start: 01.01.2012
Project end: 31.12.2015
Sponsor: Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture

In the context of the project “GS-Mobil”, promoted by the German Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food (BLE), the Geisenheim Institute of vegetable crops develops, in cooperation with the German Weather Service (DWD) and Helm-Software, an updated version of the Geisenheim Irrigation Scheduling for vegetable crops. Currently the Geisenheim Irrigation Scheduling is balancing plant and soil water use, irrigation and rain fall, to recommend irrigation events. Therefore the user needs to continuously put culture specific data in this system. GS-Mobil aims to minimize the need of user supplied input, hence, to model the water needs of the plants in context of their growth and development depending on the weather conditions. This model is going to be the heart of a mobile app programmed by helm-software, which is supplied with weather data from the German Weather Service. The app will provide reliable irrigation recommendations to vegetable producers all over Germany. With this project the vegetable irrigation will become more user friendly, resource efficient and over all: mobile.

Project start: 01.01.2011
Project end: 31.12.2015
Sponsor: Landesbetrieb Landwirtschaft Hessen

"Yellow Wilting" is a severe problem in the production of corn salad (Valerianella locusta). The symptoms are yellow, chlorotic and limp leaves. Affected plants are not marketable any more. Previous experiments have pointed to the fact that plant pathogens might be involved. The microbiocoenosis in soils with symptomatic and asymptomatic plants shall be investigated, using experiments in green house and climate chambers.

Project start: 01.01.2011
Project end: 31.01.2015
Sponsor: Hessian Centre on Climate Change

The future climate impact on climatic water balance and dynamics of plant nutrients are evaluated for the vegetable production in the region "Hessisches Ried" in Hesse, Germany. Regional climate models WETTREG, REMO and CCLM, driven by global climate models ECHAM5 and HadCM3 under scenario A1B, are assessed to evaluate potential ranges of changes in climatic water balance. The impact of climate change on nitrate leaching is investigated via experiments in lysimeters.