Blueprint for cultivation of Jute Mallow (Corchorus olitorius) under Swedish conditions

Sammanfattning: Investigations were carried out in order to develop a natural science and social science approaches for introduction of new vegetable crops to the Swedish market and to meet the demographic changes in the society. The focus is on developing preliminary baselines for cultivation of jute mallow, a vegetable crop usually used in Middle East food culture. Within the frame of natural science approach, crop cultivation as affected by two different commercially available substrates, Mediterranean peat substrate (MPS) and vegetable peat substrate (VPS) and two different fertilizers, organic cow manure (CM) or synthetic fertilizers (NPK) were evaluated. In a pilot experiment in the greenhouse, each substrate was subjected to three different treatments; (1) control treatment with only substrate and no addition of either CM or NPK, (2) treatment with substrate and CM and (3) treatment with substrate and NPK. Each treatment consisted of four replicates and the experiment was conducted in three blocks. Effect of the treatments on plant development was judged using the BBCH scale. Plant height, leaf area, biomass measurements and nutrient content in leaves and substrate were also included as evaluation parameters. The results indicated that seed germination in MPS was faster compared to VPS, while side shoot development and plant height were higher in VPS. Higher plant height was recorded in the MPS treatments with either CM or NPK compared with the control treatment. Plant height in the control treatment with VPS surpassed plant height in amending VPS with either cow manure or NPK. Fresh biomass of leaves and stem was higher in all VPS treatments compared with the control treatment with MPS or the treatment with MPS and CM. In the contrary, the control treatment with MPS and MPS with CM indicated higher root biomass compared with all other treatments. Nutrient analyses of the substrate at harvest indicated higher amount of ammonium compared with nitrate in all the treatment, except for MPS treatment with NPK. Social science approach performed by a survey showed that consumers prefer to buy fresh jute mallow and they were interested in the quality and source of the importing product. Wholesale stated that introduction of jute mallow cultivation will attract many Swedish consumers. Results showed also that growers need knowledge and information of jute mallow cultivation, production, profits, and marketing and 20% of the growers were interested to be the first who grow jute mallow.