Recent News
Celebrating 10 years is the cover story for Cultivate magazine!
Nov 12, 2024
We’re honored to be featured as the cover story in Cultivate magazine, celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the Cal Poly Strawberry Center! The story highlights our journey, growth and commitment to advancing strawberry research and supporting the industry. Here’s to a decade of innovation and collaboration—and many more to come!
Here's a link to the story (pp. 7-10): https://issuu.com/cafes.calpoly.edu/docs/cultivate_fall_2024_final
A huge thank you to AnnMarie Cornejo (Director of Communications, CAFES) and Lauren McEwen (4th year Ag Comms student) for writing this story.
Students & staff attend CAPCA's 50th Annual Conference
Nov 12, 2024
Quite a few staff and students represented the Strawberry Center at the California Association of Pest Control Advisors (CAPCA) 50th Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA. In attendance were Gerald Holmes (Center Director), Kyle Blauer (Field Research Manager), Stephen Pryor, Shaelyn Spencer, Taylor Hibino, Olivia Bruns and Sawyer Claussen (Student assistants). Dr. Holmes gave a presentation on disease management in strawberries.
Congratulations to CAPCA on their 50th Anniversary and for supporting Cal Poly student through scholarships and career advancement opportunities!
Transplanting Day 2024
Nov 5, 2024
60,741 plants over 2.4 acres!
While these numbers are quite modest for commercial growers, it's a milestone for our team at the Strawberry Center, marking the start of a new season of research. This year, we were fortunate to have cool, sunny weather on transplanting day—quite a change from past years with temperatures soaring above 95°F!
A huge thank you to our dedicated students, staff and the hardworking labor crews who completed the task in just one day. Special appreciation goes out to Sundance Berry Farms and Blazer Wilkinson Gee for providing labor crews, as well as Lassen Canyon Nursery and Crown Nursery for donating our bareroot transplants. After a day of hard work, seeing rows of strawberry transplants is a reward that makes every bent back and deep knee bend worth it!
Pathology Research Associate Sam Simard attends ASHS in Honolulu!
Oct 29, 2024
Sam Simard, our Pathology Research Associate, represented the Strawberry Center at the American Society for Horticultural Science 2024 Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii.
She presented on the effect of planting date on strawberry yield during the Commercial Horticulture/ Federal Partners Poster Session. Great job, Sam!
You can view Samantha's poster here!
Food Science Department makes a new batch of strawberry jam!
Oct 25, 2024
We’re excited to share the results of our recent strawberry donation to the Department of Food Science & Nutrition! Thanks to Molly Lear and the Food Sciences team, a fresh batch of strawberry jam has been crafted using strawberries straight from our fields. This collaboration is a perfect example of students learning by doing, engaged in every step of the process—from field to final product. We're very proud of this hands-on partnership that turns our harvest into something special!
Head to our Instagram to see a video of the process: https://www.instagram.com/p/DBj0CL3TE-E/
You can purchase this at Campus Market stores and at the Cal Poly store in downtown San Luis Obispo.
Field preparation is finished!
Oct 22, 2024
Over the past few weeks, we've been busy prepping the fields for transplanting. This year, our acreage has increased with the inclusion of another field. Throughout this process, our students had the opportunity to help in every aspect - from discing the soil to laying the plastic. You'll see footage from almost every step of the process here. Our transplanting day is coming up at the end of October, so stay tuned!
The faces behind our Plant Pathology Program
Oct 14, 2024
Ever wonder whose behind the research? Take a look at the two faces of our Plant Pathology lab, Dr. Shashika Hewavitharana (Program Leader) and Sam Simard (Research Associate). These two work incredibly hard to conduct research and perform plant disease diagnostics for the industry. Their expertise doesn't stop at the lab; they’re also dedicated educators at Cal Poly, with Dr. Hewavitharana serving as an assistant professor and Sam as a part-time lecturer. We are very thankful to have them on our team!
Graduate students present at APS Plant Health Annual Meeting
Oct 8, 2024
Three of our graduate students, Marina Gutierrez, Joseph Ramirez, and Cooper Calvin, recently attended the APS Plant Health Annual Meeting in Memphis, TN. Both Marina and Joseph presented on their research projects.
To view their posters, click on these links:
Effect of Abiotic Stresses on Macrophomina Root Rot Development in California Strawberry , Marina Gutierrez
Evaluation of Host Resistance to Macrophomina Root Rot and Verticillium Wilt in Strawberry , Joseph Ramirez
JUST PUBLISHED: AI Runner Recognition in Strawberry Plants
Oct 4, 2024
JUST PUBLISHED: "A Two-Step Deep Semantic Segmentation and Object Detection Approach for Runner Recognition in Strawberry Plants" by Mojtaba Ahmadi, Abbas Atefi, Mohammadreza Ramzanpour, and John Lin. Strawberry farming in California faces a costly challenge: removing runners that divert plant resources away from fruit production towards producing daughter plants. Traditionally cut by hand, this labor-intensive task adds up to significant costs for farmers.
In collaboration with the California Strawberry Commission, this study introduces a two-step deep learning framework that combines semantic segmentation and object detection to accurately identify runners in strawberry fields. Successfully tested on three different cultivars, the AI system demonstrated high accuracy in runner recognition. This innovative technology paves the way for autonomous pruning robots, potentially reducing labor costs, increasing efficiency and boosting productivity for strawberry growers.
Read the paper here:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15538362.2024.2397438
Center entomologist meets with Parabug for a drone demonstration
Oct 1, 2024
This past week our entomologist, Mohammad Amir Aghaee, met with former Strawberry Center graduate student Kiley Jensen to witness a demonstration of the Parabug drone delivering predatory mites on strawberries in Santa Maria.
It was an opportunity to discuss predatory mite research and methods with Bill Turechek, Andrew Molinar, and Roberto Mendoza (former Center undergraduate student) of the CSC, Sally Grey of Biobest, Daniel Ibarra PCA and Gabino Duran of Rancho Bonita. Kiley showed us how the drone is loaded and applied, and spoke about the laws surrounding drone use in California agriculture. Daniel Ibarra discussed the economics of using drones compared to normal hand releases. It was a great opportunity to hear new perspectives and make connections!
