Trial Results
As the goal of the Seed to Kitchen Collaborative is to evaluate new varieties that show promise for direct market growers in Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest, they are not a comprehensive look at all available varieties. We do make our best effort to include relevant check varieties and to solicit entries from a wide range of breeding programs and companies. Clicking on the crop photos will give you a summary of the best varieties from the trials as well as some information on where to purchase seed. The more detailed reports are available at the links for that year below.
Site Decriptions
The West Madison Agricultural Research Station is located at 8502 Mineral Point Road, Verona, WI. Janet Hedtcke is the station superintendent and has extensive experience with organic systems. Brian Emerson was the trial manager from 2014-2019. Thomas Hickey started as trial manager in 2020. Soils are silt loams, with about 3.5% organic matter and a pH of 7.4 in the certified organic acreage. It is in the USDA hardiness zone 5a.
In 2014, trials were conducted in the West Madison Agricultural Research Station (ARS) demonstration garden, which has been managed organically for over 10 years. In 2015, tomato trials were conducted in the certified organic acreage of the West Madison ARS, with side-by-side high tunnel and field comparisons. Other crops were in the demonstration garden. In 2016 and 2017, onions and spring greens were grown in the demonstration garden and the remainder of the crops were grown in the certified organic acreage. From 2018 on, all crops were grown in the certified organic acreage.
We added a full trial of all crops at Spooner ARS starting in 2017 with the help of Phil Holman, Station Superintendent and Kevin Schoessow, area Extension Agricultural Educator. Spooner is on sandy loam to sandy soils and is in USDA Hardiness zone 3b. Management details for crops are found in the annual trial reports.
In 2020 we were unable to run the on-station trials due to the COVID pandemic. We did send out farm and garden trials to participating farmers and gardeners. In 2021 we had a limited number of on-station trials and added breeding trials to the farm and garden trials as part of a collaborative breeding intiative with the Organic Seed Alliance and Seedlinked as well as independent breeders Keith Mueller and Erica Kempter. In 2022 and 2023, we continued the collaborative breeding projects, and plan to in 2024 as well.
Yearly trial reports of all crops
On-farm and garden trial results are available at:
2022 SKC Potato - Red External Link
2022 SKC Potato - Yellow External Link
2022 SKC Potato - Blue External Link
2022 SKC Tomato Breeding – 17H03 KC Tomato External Link
2022 SKC Tomato breeding – Sun Lucky, 4-5L KC External Link
2022 SKC Tomato Breeding – JxB Nature and Nurture External Link
2022 SKC Bell Pepper Breeding DHxWL External Link
2022 Northern WI Carrot Trial External Link
2022 Northern WI Winter Squash Trial External Link
2022 Northern WI Melon Trial External Link
2021 SeedLinked Tomato - Early Generation 17H03 - KC Tomato - Breeding External Link
2021 SeedLinked Tomato – Advanced Generation KC External Link
2021 SeedLinked Tomato – JxB Nature and Nuture External Link
2021 SeedLinked Pepper Breeding External Link
2021 SeedLinked Potato – Fingerling, Farmer Trial External Link
2021 SeedLinked Potato – Fingerling, Gardener Trial External Link
2021 SeedLinked Potato – Blue, Farmer Trial External Link
2021 SeedLinked Potato – Blue, Gardener Trial External Link
2021 SeedLinked Potato – Yellow, Farmer Trial External Link
2021 SeedLinked Potato – Yellow, Gardener Trial External Link
2021 SeedLinked Potato – Red, Farmer Trial External Link
2021 SeedLinked Potato – Red, Gardener Trial External Link
2021 SeedLinked Bell Pepper External Link
2021 SeedLinked Squash – Maxima External Link
2021 SeedLinked Cucumber – Mini External Link
2021 SeedLinked Cucumber – Asian External Link
2021 SeedLinked Carrot – Purple External Link
2021 SeedLinked Carrot – Bunching External Link
2020 SeedLinked All Trials External Link
2019 SeedLinked All Trials External Link
On-station trial results from West Madison and Spooner are available at:
2021 External Link
2019 External Link
2018 External Link
2017 External Link
2016 External Link
2015 External Link
2014 External Link
