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Testing fertilizer, gypsum, planting season and varieties of wild leek (Allium tricoccum) in forest farming system

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Abstract

Wild leek (Allium tricoccum) is an edible spring ephemeral of the eastern deciduous forests of North America that takes advantage of the short period of high light conditions between snowmelt and canopy closure to accumulate the carbon required to complete its annual growth and seed production. In Québec (Canada), this slow-growing species has been subjected to great harvesting pressure, which forced the provincial government to ban commercial harvest and sales in 1995. An illegal market has since developed and the plant is still under threat. Conservation of existing natural populations might be possible through commercial production of wild leek. To investigate this possibility, we set up plots in four sugar maple forest stands where different organic fertilizer and gypsum (0 or 3,000 kg ha−1) applications were tested, together with two wild leek varieties, and bulb planting season. The two varieties, tricoccum and burdickii, despite morphological differences, are both suitable for cultivation. Planting bulbs in the spring seems more advantageous than in autumn, but these results will need to be confirmed. Fertilized plants exhibited better growth the year following transplantation than did non-fertilized plants. Belowground:aboveground biomass ratios indicated that plants receiving more fertilizer produced larger bulbs, but leaf size did not differ statistically. According to leaf nutrient analysis, fertilizers would need to be applied each year, whereas gypsum (as a calcium source) can be applied less frequently. Our results indicated a high potential for wild leek as a forest crop, at least when the bulbs are planted.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Larbi Zerouala and Michel Boisclair from the ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation du Québec (MAPAQ) for initiating this project. Many thanks to André Boucher and Elsa Étilé (MAPAQ), Stefano Campagnaro, Sébastien Charbonneau and Jessie Wrangel (Centre de recherche agroalimentaire de Mirabel), Louis Charron, Marie-Pier Denis and Marie-Hélène Jacques (Université Laval), for their assistance during field work and data collection, Gaétan Daigle from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics for his statistical advises and Martha Darling Graf for manuscript revision. We would also like to thank the land owners. This project was supported financially by MAPAQ, through a grant to LL from the Programme de soutien à l’innovation en agroalimentaire.

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  1. Département de biologie and Centre d’étude de la forêt, Université Laval, Québec, QC, G1V 0A6, Canada

    Antoine Bernatchez, Julie Bussières & Line Lapointe

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  1. Antoine Bernatchez
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  2. Julie Bussières
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  3. Line Lapointe
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Correspondence to Line Lapointe.

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Bernatchez, A., Bussières, J. & Lapointe, L. Testing fertilizer, gypsum, planting season and varieties of wild leek (Allium tricoccum) in forest farming system. Agroforest Syst 87, 977–991 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-013-9613-1

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