Scientists are looking to boost N.L's limited growing season with 'simple technologies'

Researchers have been carrying out experiments in Newfoundland and Labrador and as far north as the Yukon to see how they can help give crops an edge in a limited growing season.

Julia Wheeler is a scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada who is part of the research project Vegetables in the North. The project carried out experiments at sites in St. John's, Happy Valley-Goose Bay as well as Whitehorse, where they grew green beans and potatoes.

"This project is really about food security and food systems in northern communities and being able to augment local food production as much as possible," Wheeler told CBC Radio's The St. John's Morning Show.

The experiments — including 21 different potato varieties — looked into what types of food varieties grow better in colder conditions. The data can be used to increase local food production.

"I think any home gardeners and farmers certainly know that spring in Newfoundland and Labrador, you can have a pretty late frost and the same thing goes in the fall," said Wheeler.

If crops could get an earlier start in the year, she said it could mean higher yields and an earlier harvest.

Wheeler says the experiments were done in collaboration with the Pye Centre for Northern Boreal Food Systems and the Yukon territorial government.

The team used "simple technologies" like low-tunnels, a thermal insulated material hung over a crop using wire hooping.

"What this does is it raises the soil temperature and it raises the air temperature around the crops. And this can be very important, especially in the early growing season," said Wheeler.

She said that's fairly inexpensive and easy to set up.

Another technology they explored was bioplastic mulch, which is placed over the soil during seeding.

"What it does is it traps heat and moisture inside the soil and gives the germinating seeds and the early crops a better environment. That's the idea," Wheeler said.

However, she said the bioplastic mulch didn't break down very well at the two Newfoundland and Labrador sites. The results are likely due to exposure to sunlight, she said, adding the Whitehorse site's bioplastic mulch layer broke down "reasonably well."

"But this is going to need more investigation," said Wheeler.

Wheeler said the two technologies are viable and affordable solutions for small-scale farmers.

"Most producers in northern Canada don't operate at very large scales. So the technologies that we evaluate and varieties that we evaluate,  we try to make sure that these are things that would be accessible to smaller growers and can be used by smaller growers," she said.

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