Improving Crop Health, Performance, and Quality in Organic Spring Wheat Production: The Need to Understand Interactions between Pedoclimatic Conditions, Variety, and Fertilization

Summary

This multi-site UK field trial examined whether variety selection and fertilisation regime adjustments could narrow the yield and quality gap in organic spring wheat production without compromising nutritional quality. The researchers evaluated six spring wheat varieties under standard organic fertilisation and one commercial variety (Paragon) under nine different fertilisation regimes across three contrasting UK farms. Paragon and Tybalt emerged as superior performers, combining disease resistance, yield potential, and grain processing quality whilst maintaining the micronutrient density advantage and lower cadmium content characteristic of organic production.

Regional applicability

These findings are directly applicable to UK organic wheat farmers, identifying specific varieties and fertilisation strategies suited to the three pedoclimatic conditions studied. The work addresses a key practical problem in UK organic cereal production—the yield-quality gap relative to conventional systems—and provides evidence-based variety recommendations that balance commercial processing requirements with nutritional quality.

Key measures

Foliar disease severity, grain yield, grain protein content, processing quality parameters (bread-making quality thresholds), micronutrient concentrations, cadmium concentrations, crop health indicators across three pedoclimatic sites

Outcomes reported

The study compared crop health, yield, grain processing quality, and nutritional quality across six spring wheat varieties under organic management at three UK sites, and evaluated nine different fertilisation regimes applied to one widely-used variety (Paragon). Key findings identified Paragon and Tybalt as the best-performing varieties for disease resistance, grain yield, and quality parameters under organic farming conditions.

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