Vegetable Variety Trials Matanuska Valley, Alaska 1989

Abstract

To remain competitive, commercial vegetable producers require updated information on the performance of new vegetable varieties under the soil and climatic conditions of southcentral Alaska. Variety trials provide the opportunity to evaluate potentially adapted plant material. Although many varieties are developed in environments considerably different from that of southcentral Alaska, some may prove to be useful to commercial growers in Alaska. The information on new varieties must be collected over several growing seasons to provide sufficient confidence in the observed performance. Additionally, each year of the performance trials, new varieties are grown with traditional or standard varieties which are used to compare the quality of the new varieties. Commercial production of new varieties should be considered after several years of variety trial work with initial plantings on a small production scale.