Dry Farm Tomato Field Day

Dry Farm Tomato Field Day Wednesday, September 2nd; 10am–2pm at UC Santa Cruz Climate change models predict increasingly hot and dry conditions, raising concerns about impacts on agricultural production and food security. Answering this challenge is organic dry farming, a sustainable practice that allows growers to produce crops under arid conditions with little irrigation. Researchers from UC Santa Cruz and the University of Oregon are studying the environmental conditions and plant traits that support successful dry-farmed tomato production on 10 different varieties. Join us for a Field Day focused on research that aims to help small-scale organic farmers adapt to our changing climate. We will be recruiting three growers for field trials to test some of these varieties next year. Vidi Castro (UC Santa Cruz) will share her latest findings, and lead a tour of the on-site research plots to look at plant vigor and growth. Attendees will have the chance to ask questions and connect with fellow farmers. Lunch will be provided. Who should attend?This field day is geared toward organic farmers, agricultural professionals, students, and anyone interested in sustainable farming practices. About this researchNumerous studies have characterized physical traits associated with organic dry-farm crops, but few studies have examined the water and carbon-use strategies that allow these plants to succeed in drought-stressed environments. Our work aims to provide information about how plants respond to drought stress in dry-farming systems in hopes to inform scientists, breeders, and farmers on the best techniques that can be put to practice in a changing climate. This work is bolstered by a collaboration with Oregon State University, where researchers are tackling the same questions to compare our results and provide applications not just to coastal California but to coastal climates in the Western United States. Our teams’ current endeavor includes growing ten varieties of dry-far

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