CALIFORNIA
Vegetables A SPECIAL GROWERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ®
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Glenn Cole of the University of California, Davis, strawberry breeding program says researchers are breeding new varieties in hopes of building resistence to soil-borne diseases. At right, strawberries from test plots grow at Elkhorn Berry Farms in Prunedale.
Trials of strawberry varieties show promising yields By Bob Johnson The next generation of strawberries is growing in test plots at a sprawling Naturipe field between Castroville and Prunedale. In June, he joined researchers in discussing strawberry breeding efforts during the first University of California strawberry field day in Monterey County since the start of the pandemic.
Five numbered varieties in the trial have yielded between 15% and 51% more than Monterey strawberries in two years of trials at the Prunedale area field. They also demonstrated superior resistance to important diseases. Still, only a few of them are slated for early release. “We’re only going to go forward with a couple of these,” said Glenn Cole, field man- ager for the UC Davis strawberry breeding program. “We’re getting this out as fast as we can.” This revival of strawberry breeding research came thanks to a $4.5 million U.S. Department of Agriculture specialty crops research grant under the 2017 Farm Bill. The grant was intended to help manage diseases that have increased with the loss of methyl bromide. “The loss of methyl bromide as a chemical for controlling soil-borne pathogens, as well as increasing resistance of pathogens to fungicides, is severely limiting the ef- fectiveness of chemical measures for managing disease pressure in strawberry,” said Steve Knapp, director of the UC strawberry breeding program, in announcing the grant.
Five numbered experimental cultivars in the trial are outyielding Monterey, the pop- ular strawberry variety planted statewide this year on more than 10,000 acres, according to the California Strawberry Commission acreage survey. During the 2020 season, Monterey berries in the Elkhorn Berry Farms Meridian ranch yielded a little more than 10,500 marketable trays per acre, while the experimental varieties produced 15,000 to 16,000 trays. Production of Monterey increased to more than 14,000 trays last year, but the exper- imental varieties also increased their yields, from 16,000 to 19,000 trays. The next generation of strawberry varieties also have superior resistance to soil- borne diseases such as fusarium and verticillium that have challenged growers since fumigation with methyl bromide was regulated out of existence. Naturipe ranch manager Nazario Mozqueda liked what he saw in the plots of exper- imental varieties growing next to the Monterey plant. “This has fewer runners and more berries than Monterey,” Mozqueda said as he looked at one of the numbered varieties growing in test plots in the field between Castroville and Prunedale.
See STRAWBERRIES, Page 8
July 6, 2022 Ag Alert 7
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