ABSTRACT

Replacing traditional crop varieties with commercial, high-yielding varieties during the last decades is one of the main drivers for the decline in farmland and crop diversity. However, it is unclear how commercial, high-yielding varieties adapt to less environmental conditions such as weed pressure and mixed cropping cultivation systems. In Europe, organic breeding organizations conserve local, traditional varieties and develop new varieties under low-input conditions, aiming at increasing the range of varieties adapted to harsh cultivation conditions and mixed cropping. To evaluate whether organic varieties (i) cope better with weed pressure and (ii) have a higher adaptability to mixed cropping, we compared the agronomic and quality performance of eight organic varieties with eight commercial, high-yielding varieties, focusing on tomato, the economically most important vegetable in the EU. Each group was cultivated as single plants and in a mixed cropping system, respectively, with a legume and with or without exposure to weed stress by a grass. The organic group outperformed the commercial, high-yielding group, specifically, in mixed cropping systems. Weed stress lowered the yield of both groups, but the organic group showed higher fruit weight stability across the varieties than the commercial, high-yielding varieties when grown as single plants under weed stress.

摘要

在过去的几十年里，用商业化的高产品种取代传统作物品种是导致农田和作物多样性下降的主要驱动力之一。然而，目前尚不清楚商业化的高产品种如何适应杂草压力和混种栽培系统等环境条件较差的情况。在欧洲，有机育种组织保护当地传统品种并在低投入条件下开发新品种，旨在增加适应恶劣栽培条件和混作的品种范围。为了评估有机品种 (i) 是否能更好地应对杂草压力和 (ii) 是否具有更高的混作适应性，我们比较了 8 个有机品种与 8 个商业高产品种的农艺和质量表现，重点是番茄，欧盟经济上最重要的蔬菜。每组分别种植为单一植物和混合种植系统，使用豆科植物和暴露于或不暴露于草的杂草胁迫。有机组优于商业高产组，特别是在混合种植系统方面。杂草胁迫降低了两组的产量，但有机组在杂草胁迫下作为单株种植时，其品种间的果实重量稳定性高于商业高产品种。