BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND OVERVIEW

A. "Oriental crops" are defined as a collection of crops of Asian origin. The term "oriental vegetables" was once interpreted as vegetables of Chinese origin, but now encompasses a wide variety of Asian produce. Many of these oriental crops were brought to the United States by immigrants from the Orient.

Most Oriental crops are not well-known to American Farmers, due to the fact that they are cultivated by the Chinese growers exclusively for Chinese-America to use, either for their own benefit or for Chinese restaurants in the States. Some, however are very good eating and deserve an opportunity to compete in American markets.(1)

B. After visiting with several specialty produce buyers from Ohio, Kentucky and Canada the following crops were selected for these research and demonstration field trial studies in 1997. Selection was based on buyer demand, consumer demand, marketability and popularity in the marketplace.

In Ohio, agriculture production and acreage statistics are not reported for any of the oriental crops being researched. A majority of the United States oriental crops production acreage is located in California. Some production, postharvest handling and marketing information is available from the state of California but is targeted only for this region.

C. Marketing information for oriental crops in not widely published. Since oriental crops are niche items in the produce marketplace, only specialized produce companies deal in these products. Most of these buyers deal with restaurants, some chainstores and specialty food stores. Very few oriental crops are sold through retail farm markets in Ohio. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) market reports are published daily by the fruit and vegetable market news, on produce prices at the Pittsburgh terminal market. Of the oriental crops researched in our field trials, wholesale terminal market prices are only reported for Chinese Cabbage. In Ohio information and feedback from consumers and users of oriental crops is hard to collect due to the language and cultural barriers and limitations.

D. (1)Porterfield, W.M., "The Principal Chinese Vegetable Foods and Food Plants of Chinatown Markets." Economic Botany, VolumeV, 5:3-37. 1951

FIELD TRIAL RESULTS and OBSERVATIONS

METHODS:

Soil Type: Haubstadt Silt loam

Fertilization: Applied 120 lbs. N, 120 lbs. P2O5 and 120 lbs. K2O per acre prior to planting according to soil test recommendations. 20-20-20 (1 lb./100 gal., 8 oz. per plant with transplant water).

Weed Control: No herbicides were used on this trial, since many oriental crops are not labeled for use with most herbicides.

Irrigation: None

Spacing: Bare ground 5 feet apart, transplants were set into twin rows at 12 inch spacing between plants in the row and 12 inch spacing between double rows.

Pest mngmt: None

RESULTS:

Planting and harvest dates are listed for each individual crop. Yield and quality attributes were acceptable for most crops throughout the growing season. Some of these crops could be considered by growers for a double crop situation, i.e. following a wheat or early cabbage or sweet corn crop. Growers considering to diversify their current farming operations to include any of the oriental crops need to be very "CAUTIOUS", before beginning production. Markets and buyers need to be established "BEFORE" any seeds are purchased. Alternative methods of weed control will have to be considered including; cultivation, hand hoeing and the use of mulching materials, since very few chemical herbicides are labeled for these crops.

Budgets and further economic data needs to be gathered on these crops before profit potential can be determined. All crops are very labor intensive, therefore a strong and dependable labor force will be required for timely harvest and cultural practices.

Table 1. Yields and harvest data from replicated and observation oriental crops trial: OSU Extension Enterprise Center, Hillsboro, Ohio 1997.

Table 2. Marketing and packaging information from replicated and observation oriental crops trials: OSU Extension Enterprise Center, Hillsboro, Ohio 1997.

Table 3: Weather data from the 1997 growing season.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to the Ohio State University Extension responsible for the innovative Grant program available to Extension Personnel for their financial support of this project. This work would not be done without the support of this program.

Our appreciation is extended to Sunrise Enterprises, American Takii, and Ohio Indoor gardening

for their seed donations for this project.

A Special thanks and much appreciation to:

*Gary Gao, Ohio State University Extension, Clermont County for his assistance with production and marketing assistance for this project

*Dr. John Strang and Wenwei Jia, University of Kentucky horticulture, for recommendations, information and assistance with production techniques for this trial.

*Thom Harker, Research Assistant, OSU Extension Enterprise Center; summer staff members Amanda Wilson, and Dwayne Taylor who assisted with plot maintenance, harvesting and data collection. Without their help this trial would not be possible.

*Southern State Community College (Hillsboro)/Cooperator.

COOPERATING SEED COMPANIES