Research Projects

This project aims to explore and experiment new approaches and ways to preserve, develop, and enhance the MRC’s bio-food sector, and reduce or eliminate the water deficit on the island.

This project aims to develop an accessible and user-friendly web application that let stakeholders search the IRDA potato soil database, one of the largest in Canada, to visualize the impact of growing practices and protocols on the biological, physicochemical, and agronomic characteristics of soils cultivated with different cropping systems.

The selection of a cultivar should be an essential element in any sound irrigation management strategy. This project aims to optimize water use in potato farming.

Modifying the cropping system design is an effective way to improve potato crop water-use efficiency and, thereby, lessen the risk of crops experiencing water stress.

This project aims to develop mass trapping strategies to keep damage caused by the striped cucumber beetle populations below the economic threshold, while minimizing the capture of pollinators and natural enemies.

By enhancing our understanding: 1) of the nitrogen supply dynamics associated with the use of mixed green and farmyard manure applications, and 2) of the timeline of nitrogen uptake by garlic; we hope to fine-tune fertilization strategies so they meet the needs of garlic crops, while minimizing phosphorus accumulation and nitrogen leaching.

Evaluating and developing a high-throughput sequencing-based diagnostic procedure to identify pathogenic organisms.

Development of weeding strategies and methods that will reduce weed pressure on carrot crops, especially row-crop carrots, which appear to be the most problematic.

Project to quantify the long-term (60+ years) severity of erosion of organic horticultural soils.

Method to monitor and control telluric pathogens affecting potatoes that takes into account the interactions between these pathogens and other soil microbiome organisms.

Production of technical sheets on the main natural enemies of Québec’s market garden crops.

This project will help lead to the development of an organic farming system to grow baby greens.

This project aims to develop a GHD-based fertilizer management system using split band applications for high-N-demand crops grown in rows, e.g., summer cabbage.

Test whether or not commercial strains coated on Nantes carrot seeds can compete with native strains in the soil to colonize the host plant and, once symbiosis takes place, whether they succeed in doing a better job than the native strains during the transition to organic farming.

Analyzing the factors influencing European corn borer abundance in Québec to improve monitoring methods and better manage future risks associated with this pest.