ASHS 2025 Conference

Water scarcity is one of the largest challenges to agricultural resilience in the increasingly arid Southwest. An important question is if expanding organic systems can support small farms to achieve the water demand reductions needed to preserve cultivation across agricultural valleys while also achieving overall agricultural resilience. Evaluating and selecting high value crops like medicinal plants for drought and heat tolerance might also lead to alternative crops that are suited for this environment. Organic systems and alternative crops could be critical for resilience, and our project’s goal was to identify crops and practices that are culturally relevant to small farmers in the southwest. High value crops with medicinal properties were cultivated using organic farming practices. A replicated split-field design trial of nine plant species including transplanted and seeded were grown for one season and were monitored for establishment, yield, and growth traits. First year data indicates that out of the nine species, only primrose (Oenethera biennis), tepary beans (Phaseolus acutifolius), spilanthes (Acmella oleracea), calendula (Calendula officinalis) and marshmallow (Althaea officinalis) were successfully established after transplanting seedlings in May 2024, however none of the direct seeded plants germinated. Spilanthes medicinal flowers were harvested from August till October, and calendula flowers were harvested from August till December. The perennials that over wintered successfully are producing new growth for a second season are calendula, and marshmallow. Our conclusions after the first year of establishment are that transplanting these high value crops is a better option than direct seeding. In addition, overwintering of perennial plants that have established are a viable option for farmers. For future work, amount of water needed for growth and quality of each species will be measured.