OSU Dry Farming Program

What is dry farming?

Dry farming is the production of crops without irrigation, during a dry growing season, in regions receiving at least 20 inches of annual precipitation.

Dry farming has been practiced in regions with Mediterranean climates for millennia, including in the Pacific Northwest. Amerindians have cultivated crops in the Pacific Northwest since time immemorial, including tobacco gardens, managed camas plots, and estuary root gardens. Despite this, colonial authorities deemed Northwest coastal communities “non-agricultural” and dispossessed them of their traditional garden sites. Today, Amerindian farmers, growers, and horticulturalists continue to utilize a diversity of practices to maintain their First Foods. 

European settlers, attracted by the climate and soils of the Willamette Valley, began to immigrate to this region in the mid-late 19th century. Many of these farmers relied on dry farming to produce their crops, until government and private investments in canals, ditches, pumps, irrigation equipment, dams, and reservoirs increased access to irrigation. Popular dry-farmed crops in western Oregon during the early 20th century included wheat, potatoes, vegetables, hops, apples, caneberries, walnuts, and prunes.

Cultural knowledge of dry farming, and associated crops, are disappearing due to agricultural modernization, particularly our reliance on irrigation. However, many farmers throughout western Oregon have continued to dry farm many crops, including grapes, hazelnut, annual ryegrass, caneberries, walnuts, and summer vegetables. The OSU Dry Farm Program exists to educate beginning and experienced dry farmers, research dry farming practices and systems, assist farmers in marketing their dry-farmed crops, and connect experienced and novice dry farmers to help foster resiliency in our food system.

The OSU Dry Farming Program began in 2013 with case studies of farms in Western Oregon and Northern California (coordinated by Community Alliance with Family Farmers) that dry farm a variety of fruit and vegetable crops. These case studies revealed a suite of management practices that support crop production without supplemental irrigation including: careful timing of tillage and cover crop termination, early planting, cultivation (also called dust mulching) to prevent crusting of the soil surface and control weeds, diligent weed management, improving soil quality and water retention with organic matter addition (cover crops, compost, rotational grazing), increased plant spacing, and use of drought-resistant varieties.

What are some resources that the OSU Dry Farming Program provides?

Education: The OSU Dry Farming Program has developed a number of educational materials for farmers and gardeners interested in dry farming

• The Dry Farming Accelerator Program was initiated in 2023 to facilitate farmer education and adoption of dry farming. The program offers a free online dry farming curriculum. 
• We co-wrote a Dry Farming Zine with Dry Farming Institute and Culinary Breeding Network.
• Extension publications include topics such as:
  • Intro to Dry Farming Organic Vegetables
  • Dry-farmed tomato production in Western Oregon 
  • Dry-farmed melon production in Western Oregon
  • Common Misconceptions and Key Points about Dry Farming
• We have created a number of web articles on relevant topics
  • Dry-farmed tomato production - This website includes reports from tomato variety trials from 2020-2022.
  • Dry-farmed melon production - This website includes a report on melon variety trials from 2022.
  • Principles of tomato grafting - This website includes videos and other resources for farmers interested in learning how to graft tomatoes
  • The blossom-end rot toolkit - This website includes reports and videos on controlling blossom-end rot in dry-farmed tomato.
• We have produced a number of videos available at the Dry Farming Collaborative YouTube page

• The Dry Farm Mapping Project is dedicated to increasing our understanding of statewide dry farming suitability. Link takes you to Dry Farming Institute website. 

• Recordings of the 2020 Dry Farm Program Virtual Field Tours, Virtual Adaptive Ag Water Symposium, and annual Dry Farming Collaborative (DFC) Winter Convening, and more can be found in the events tab.

Research: The OSU Dry Farming Program is dedicated to producing high-quality research to improve outcomes and livelihoods for dry farmers.

Here are some of the articles that we have produced, all of which are published in open source journals. 

• Site Factors Related to Dry Farm Vegetable Productivity and Quality in the Willamette Valley of Oregon (2023) - This study showed that site factors including soil available water holding capacity and native productivity rating were correlated with dry farm yields. 
• Grafting onto Tomato Rootstocks Improves Outcomes for Dry-farmed Tomato (2024) - This study demonstrated that grafting onto tomato rootstocks (DRO141TX and Fortamino) improved yield and reduced blossom-end rot (BER) incidence for dry-farmed tomato. 

• Floor Management and Amendment Applications Affected Dry-farmed Tomato Production during a 2020 Experiment in the Willamette Valley of Oregon (2025) - This study demonstrated that weeding is critical for dry farm performance and that increasing fertilizer application rates and leaf mulching increases BER incidence in dry-farmed tomato.

• Evaluating Management Practices for Controlling Blossom-end Rot and Other Blemishes in Dry-farmed Tomato (2025) - This study looked at a number of methods for controlling blemishes in dry-farmed tomato. Increasing fertilizer application rates increased BER but also decreased average fruit weight, decreased incidence of yellow shoulder, and increased fruit sugars. 

• The Interactions Between Shading and Organic Fertilizer Application on Dry-farmed Tomato Grown Between Photovoltaic Panels (2026) - This study found that shading and fertilizer application rate interact to affect yield and BER incidence in dry-farmed tomatoes grown between solar panels. 

Marketing: We have worked with the Culinary Breeding Network and the Dry Farming Institute to produce marketing materials for dry-farmed crops

High-quality versions are linked here that you can download, print, and display/provide at your farmers market stall, CSA box, or other retail space.

• Dry-farmed Tomato Poster
• Dry-farmed Melon Poster
• Dry-farmed Tomato and Melon cards'

The Dry Farming Institute offers additional resources for growers

• Dry Farmed Produce Directory

Connection: There are a number of ways that growers can get involved with dry farming at OSU and beyond 

• Sign up for our listserv - Receive periodic updates, with dry farming resources and opportunities to connect and participate in dry farming trials and educational activities. Sign up here.
• Join the Dry Farming Collaborative Facebook Page.
• Reach out to the Dry Farming Institute. 
• Donate to the OSU Dry Farming Program.