Aug 6th ~ Farmington, MN.

Farmers can take the future of seed into their own hands by breeding plant varieties that are fine tuned for their own farm system. At this field day, we will highlight two plant breeding projects of the Organic Field School at Gardens of Eagan: a project to develop hardy, high quality varieties of sweet corn for organic systems and a project to introduce a new, early, roma-type tomato. Participants in the field day will also learn about on-farm organic breeding happening around the country and about the basics of starting their own breeding projects. Those attending will receive packets with information to help them go deeper into the fascinating art of on-farm breeding. Atina and Martin Diffley, the Organic Seed Alliance, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison will lead the field day and be on hand to answer questions.
Date and time: Thursday, August 6, 12pm-5pm

Location: Gardens of Eagan, 25494 Highview Ave. Farmington, MN 55024

Agenda:

12:00 pm–12:30 pm: Intro to Participatory Plant Breeding and the Organic Seed Alliance
12:30 pm - 2:00  pm:  Sweet Corn Project
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm :    Tomato Project
3:00 pm – 5:00 pm :    Fundamental concepts of on-arm breeding for organics: plant reproduction basics, population sizes, isolation distances, mass selection, and progeny selection.


Thanks to funding from the Organic Farming Research Foundation, and with cooperation from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, this is a free event. There is no registration. Refreshments will be served. Please e-mail Adrienne at acshelton@wisc.edu or call 703-231-5377 for more information.
                                                  

Atina Diffley, Board President
Organic Field School @ Gardens of Eagan

25494 Highview Ave., Farmington, MN 55024
952-469-1855 farmhouse



A Field is an area of land used to cultivate crops, or to keep livestock. It is also a branch of knowledge and the area in which a sport is played. At the Organic Field School, the sport is farming, the knowledge is organic and the winners are healthy humans and a healthy environment.

Copyright © 2009 OFS@GOE. All Rights Reserved.