“When you think back to the ’80s and ’70s and ’60s, you only had berries five or six months out of the year. Now we’ve got them 12 months out of the year,” said Mel Fernandez, a sales representative for Lassen Canyon who has worked in the strawberry business since 1981. A snowbird crop The state’s largest growing region lies in the Central Coast, with Watsonville in Santa Cruz County, Salinas in Monterey County and Santa Maria in Santa Barbara Count y dominat ing produc t ion. Thi s reg ion grows mos t of the strawberries sold during the spring and summer. As weather cools, production moves south, with farms in Ventura, Orange and San Diego count ies shipping most of the volume. Improved strawberry varieties play a major role in California farmers’ ability to send berries to market year-round, and nurseries produce those varieties for different climates and growing conditions. Some of the most widely grown varieties come from the University of California. Lassen Canyon has its own breeding program and produces varieties for growers in California and other parts of the world. Lassen Canyon produces transplants using tissue culture taken from a runner, or shoot, of f an original plant. This process begins at company he adqu a r t e r s i n Redd i ng , a l s o home to a s c r e enhou s e whe r e t he pl a nt s a r e f u r t he r propagated. From there, the plants are multiplied in the company’s fields in San Joaquin County. The f ina l grow-out takes place in Siskiyou County, because the region can provide the proper winter chilling strawberry plants need, Elwood said. The young plants react to low temperatures by putting more energy in their crowns, he said, “and that’s what we make our money on.” “It’s telling its babies, ‘You better start storing up. There’s going to be a long winter,’” Elwood said.
In addition to producing transplants for farmers and home gardeners, Lassen Canyon operates its own breeding program, above and right, to develop new strawberry varieties. Below, a commercial strawberry field is seen during production season.
When grower s f ina l ly plant those crowns, the plants already have “a full tank of gas and a lot of strength,” he added.
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