Cal Poly Strawberry Center’s Inaugural Field Day to Become an Annual Event

The Strawberry Center’s first Field Day showcased field research and attracted more than 200 attendees representing all aspects of the strawberry industry including growers, researchers and industry representatives. Gerald Holmes, director of the Cal Poly Strawberry Center, Kelly Ivors, plant pathologist, Ryan Brantley, research associate and John Lin, bio-engineer, were among those who presented. Several Cal Poly students pursuing their master's degrees also presented their research. In all, the results of 10 experiments, including two variety trials demonstrating the susceptibility of 90 strawberry genotypes to two soil-borne diseases, Verticillium wilt and Macrophomina crown rot, were shared. Other demonstrations included projects on labor-saving automation for strawberry production such as a remote-controlled device that can travel between the rows of strawberry plants and capture images of berries to be transmitted back to growers, bug vacuum improvements, sprayer technology, Botrytis fungicide efficacy, chemigation for soil-borne disease control, dip treatments for anthracnose management and Botrytis fungicide resistance development. Field day handouts from the July 27, 2017, event are available here. The next Field Day will be held in July 2018. Event updates and additional information will be posted on the Strawberry Center’s website at www. strawberry.calpoly.edu as the event gets closer. We are grateful for the support of the California Strawberry Commission in making this event a success. 

For more stories, view the rest of our newsletter