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Quantifying soil health and tomato crop productivity in urban community and market gardens

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Abstract

Food production in cities offers a framework for local self-reliance and resilience. However, there are concerns about urban soil quality and a general lack of data on productivity in urban gardens. This study investigated soil health via a comprehensive nematode food web analysis and crop productivity via tomato fruit yield in community and market gardens in Cleveland, Ohio, USA over a two-year period. Results revealed that market gardens had significantly higher soil organic matter (SOM) and NH4-N than community gardens in 2011. While there was no difference between market gardens and community gardens in terms of nematode abundances (except bacteria-feeding nematodes in 2011), market gardens had higher nematode combined maturity index than community gardens in 2011. However, plant-parasitic index was lower in market gardens than in community gardens in 2011. There was no difference in tomato fruit yield in either year between the garden types, but tomato growth responses including leaf dry weight ratio, and plant surface area differed between market and community gardens in 2012. Different weather and related soil and growing conditions likely contributed to the large variation observed between 2011 and 2012; still, soils in market gardens tended to support greater growth and yield than community gardens. Regardless, there was no direct evidence that the gardens were nutrient limited, thereby minimizing the potential for nutrient limitations to contribute to yield differences. Overall, fruit yield ranged from 1.47 to 15.72 kg/m2, which is consistent with U.S. national average for commercial production systems.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by funding from the Environmental Science Graduate Program and the National Science Foundation GK-12 program. We also thank the Ohio State University Extension for information regarding urban gardens in the Cleveland area, and the managers, staff and individual gardeners at the Ben Franklin Garden, the Kentucky Garden, the Michael R. White Garden, the Paul Revere Garden, the Cleveland Botanical Garden’s GreenCorp Gardens, Refugee Response, and Standard Farms for allowing access to their garden sites and working with us for the duration of this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Urban Environment and Economic Development, Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University, 1680 Madison Avenue, Wooster, OH, 44691, USA

    J. Reeves, Z. Cheng, J. Kovach, M. D. Kleinhenz & P. S. Grewal

  2. Vegetable Production Systems Laboratory, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, The Ohio State University, 1680 Madison Ave, Wooster, OH, 44691, USA

    M. D. Kleinhenz

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  1. J. Reeves
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  2. Z. Cheng
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  3. J. Kovach
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  4. M. D. Kleinhenz
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  5. P. S. Grewal
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Correspondence to P. S. Grewal.

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Reeves, J., Cheng, Z., Kovach, J. et al. Quantifying soil health and tomato crop productivity in urban community and market gardens. Urban Ecosyst 17, 221–238 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-013-0308-1

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