Strawberries harvested in late fall and early
winter command prices four times higher than in May and June. Any time of year,
the berries are low in calories and high in folate, vitamin C and
potassiumnutrients essential for good health. Click the image for more
information about it. |
New Method Yields Local Strawberries Until
Christmas Season
By
Rosalie Marion Bliss
December 14, 2005
Freshly harvested local strawberries may soon be spotted on holiday
tables in the mid-Atlantic region. An Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist developed a new method for
propagating June-bearing strawberry varieties that allows the plants to fruit
in the fall, continue fruiting until December, and then fruit again in the
spring.
This double cropping of June-bearing strawberries is a phenomenon not
normally observed in the mid-Atlantic states, where the plants traditionally
flower and bear fruit only in spring.
The new method of double cropping June-bearing strawberries requires
harvesting small plants (called runner tips) from mother plants in early July.
Those tips are put into 8-cubic-inch containers and placed under water misters
for rooting. Eight-week-old transplants are planted in the field in early
September. They will flower and fruit during the same fall.
With the standard method, runner tips are harvested in early August
and planted in the field as four-week-old transplants. They will flower and
bear fruit only during the following spring.
ARS horticulturist
Fumiomi
Takeda developed the new method. He is based at the ARS
Appalachian
Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville, W.Va.
There are clear economic benefits for growers who wish to use Takeda's
method. Not only are two crops harvested in one year, but fruit harvested in
late fall or early winter commands prices four times as high as fruit harvested
in the May-June period.
Where the danger of freeze exists in late fall and early winter,
plastic tunnels must be used to protect the fruit. The tunnels are relatively
inexpensive and are easy to erect in the field. The added benefit of their
presence is an earlier and higher-priced spring crop.
Takeda is now evaluating the performance of strawberry plants produced
by the new method in Florida, Oklahoma, Tennessee and the Eastern Shore of
Maryland. As of early December, fruit harvest was proceeding in all these
locations and is expected to continue--until the end of December in colder
sites, and much longer in warmer locations.
ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agricultures chief scientific research agency.