Cal Poly Strawberry Center Prepares for Second Year of Strawberry Evaluation
Cal Poly Strawberry Center students and staff transplanted more than 60,000 strawberry plants at year’s end, readying for a second year of evaluating strawberry varieties for disease resistance. The planting included more than 1,000 individual research plots with randomized treatments and 90 strawberry genotypes on 2.5 acres of land at Cal Poly. Projects are funded by the California Strawberry Commission, the California Department of Agriculture and private industry donors.
The transplanting took place on Oct. 23, on what turned out to be the hottest week of the year. Temperatures soared to 101 degrees for three consecutive days, making crop establishment of the young plants a challenge. Students and staff worked quickly to apply overhead irrigation immediately following the planting — mitigating any heat damage.
The experiments that will result from the latest planting will provide much needed information to the industry about the susceptibility of new varieties and elite selections to Verticillium wilt and Macrophomina crown rot. Several other experiments will be conducted in the same fields, including chemigation treatments for soil-borne disease control (including Phytophthora), fungicide resistance development in Botrytis and host resistance to anthracnose. Each experiment will address an industry research priority. Results of the experiments will be showcased at the annual field day in late July.
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