diff --git a/app/models/crop.rb b/app/models/crop.rb
index 75b2a1ffb..73be923aa 100644
--- a/app/models/crop.rb
+++ b/app/models/crop.rb
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ class Crop < ActiveRecord::Base
   attr_accessible :en_wikipedia_url, :system_name
   has_many :scientific_names
   has_many :plantings
+  default_scope order("lower(system_name) asc")
 
   def Crop.random
     @crop = Crop.offset(rand(Crop.count)).first
diff --git a/app/views/plantings/_form.html.haml b/app/views/plantings/_form.html.haml
index 52c432fe7..cdbb15531 100644
--- a/app/views/plantings/_form.html.haml
+++ b/app/views/plantings/_form.html.haml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 
   .control-group
     = f.label 'What did you plant?', :class => 'control-label'
-    .controls= collection_select(:planting, :crop_id, Crop.all(:order => :system_name), :id, :system_name, :selected => @crop.id)
+    .controls= collection_select(:planting, :crop_id, Crop.all, :id, :system_name, :selected => @crop.id)
   .control-group
     = f.label 'Where did you plant it?', :class => 'control-label'
     .controls= collection_select(:planting, :garden_id,
diff --git a/spec/factories/crop.rb b/spec/factories/crop.rb
index ae36699ba..4ae2367d0 100644
--- a/spec/factories/crop.rb
+++ b/spec/factories/crop.rb
@@ -30,6 +30,16 @@ FactoryGirl.define do
       system_name "Pear"
     end
 
+    # This should have a name that is alphabetically earlier than :uppercase
+    # crop to ensure that the ordering tests work.
+    factory :lowercasecrop do
+      system_name "ffrench bean"
+    end
+
+    factory :uppercasecrop do
+      system_name "Swiss chard"
+    end
+
   end
 
 end
diff --git a/spec/models/crop_spec.rb b/spec/models/crop_spec.rb
index 36f645451..4716526ac 100644
--- a/spec/models/crop_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/crop_spec.rb
@@ -42,4 +42,12 @@ describe Crop do
       @rand_crop.system_name.should == 'Tomato'
     end
   end
+
+  context 'ordering' do
+    it "should be sorted case-insensitively" do
+      uppercase = FactoryGirl.create(:uppercasecrop)
+      lowercase = FactoryGirl.create(:lowercasecrop)
+      Crop.first.should == lowercase
+    end
+  end
 end
diff --git a/spec/views/plantings/_form.html.haml_spec.rb b/spec/views/plantings/_form.html.haml_spec.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6c81c85ba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/views/plantings/_form.html.haml_spec.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+require 'spec_helper'
+
+describe "plantings/_form" do
+  before(:each) do
+    @member = FactoryGirl.create(:member)
+    @garden = FactoryGirl.create(:garden, :owner => @member)
+    @uppercase = FactoryGirl.create(:uppercasecrop)
+    @lowercase = FactoryGirl.create(:lowercasecrop)
+    @crop = @lowercase # needed to render the form
+
+    @planting = FactoryGirl.create(:planting,
+      :garden => @garden,
+      :crop => @crop
+    )
+    render
+  end
+
+  context "logged in" do
+    it "orders crops alphabetically" do
+      rendered.should =~ /#{@lowercase.system_name}.*#{@uppercase.system_name}/m
+    end
+  end
+end
+