Recent News

Center staff present at the Annual Strawberry Production meeting

Sep 17, 2024

Field Research Manager Kyle Blauer and Research Assistant Colin Koubek presented this past Friday at the 23rd Annual Strawberry Production meeting in Ventura County.

Interested in looking at their presentations? Click on the following links:

Resistance monitoring and miticide efficacy for two-spotted spider mite in strawberry, Colin Koubek

Fungicide efficacy and resistance in the top 10 fungicides for Botrytis fruit rot, Kyle Blauer

Thank You to our Field Day 2024 Sponsors!

Sep 6, 2024

A huge thank you to our incredible sponsors for making Field Day such a huge success! Their generous support helped us bring this event to life, making it by far our most successful Field Day to date. Here's to the amazing partnerships that drive our research and outreach forward. Thank you!

To view their sponsorship handouts and a full company list, click this link:

https://strawberry.calpoly.edu/field-day-2024-information-and-handouts

Marina Gutierrez researches stress contributions to Macrophomina severity

Sep 3, 2024

Graduate student Marina Gutierrez researched how environmental stressors like drought and high salinity affect Macrophomina root rot in strawberries. By artificially infecting Fronteras and Sweet Ann strawberry cultivars with Macrophomina inoculum and subjecting them to various stress conditions, she found that drought was the most significant factor in plant mortality, followed by the high ECw stress. This research aims to better our understanding of how these stressors contribute to Macrophomina disease severity in strawberries.

She presented this year's data at our Field Day. Check out her handout here.

That's a wrap on the 2024 strawberry season!

Aug 27, 2024

That's a wrap on a successful 2024 strawberry season! Pictured here is Field Research Manager Kyle Blauer and new Field Student Cade Hibino discing and ripping our fields, setting the stage for a very fruitful 2025 season.  

Dr. Holmes does episode series with Epic Gardening's "The Beet" Podcast

Aug 22, 2024

Center Director, Dr. Gerald Holmes, recently did a podcast episode series with "The Beet: A Podcast for Plant Lovers." These podcasts are geared towards gardening enthusiasts and each episode is 10 to 12 minutes long. Try one out and see if you like it. Topics in these six episodes include the origin of the garden strawberry, what determines strawberry flavor, which varieties to grow and more!

https://strawberry.calpoly.edu/episode-series-beet-podcast-plant-lovers

Strawberry Center 8th Annual Field Day

Aug 20, 2024

Strawberry Center 8th Annual Field Day
Thursday • August 8, 2025 

A record breaking attendance of over 600 strawberry growers, researchers and industry representatives gathered at the Strawberry Center for this year’s Field Day. Attendees rotated through entomology, pathology and automation stops, with opportunities to network with fellow industry members and companies.

Field Day 2024 program booklet, handouts and sponsor fliers can be found on our Center website: https://strawberry.calpoly.edu/field-day-2024-information-and-handouts

A BIG thank you to our Sponsors and In-Kind Donors! A special mention goes to Yara and Good Farms for sponsoring a delicious lunch, catered by Taco Man Express.

Follow The Strawberry Center on social media • Subscribe to our research blog: https://linktr.ee/cpstrawberrycenter

City Farm SLO's Youth Empowerment Program Visits the Center

Jul 23, 2024

The Strawberry Center team is hosting a series of tours for the students participating in the City Farm SLO's 2024 Youth Empowerment Program. This program provides exceptional leadership development opportunities to teens of all backgrounds through career/college readiness workshops and technical instruction in regenerative agriculture. https://www.cityfarmslo.org/yep

The students are able to explore the fields and hoop houses, visit the entomology lab, and pack their own strawberry clamshells! We love the opportunity to educate the younger generation about the strawberry industry.  

NEW BLOG POST: Macrophomina's host range was exaggerated

Jul 17, 2024

How many plant species does Macrophomina attack?

A paper by Pennerman et al. sheds new light on this question. Learn more in our latest research blog post:

"Macrophomina's host range was exaggerated"

New podcast episode with Redox Grows

Jul 17, 2024

We had the pleasure of collaborating with Redox Grows for a podcast episode on our mission and contributions to the industry. Have a listen here:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/redox-grows/id1633277681?i=1000660312561

Thank you to Redox Grows for this opportunity! 

Dr. Frank Louws visits the Strawberry Center

Jul 10, 2024

Dr. Frank Louws (Dept. Head in Horticultural Science at NC State University) recently visited the Strawberry Center. Dr. Louws is a renowned plant pathologist who has worked many years researching strawberry diseases in North Carolina. It was our pleasure hosting him for a visit of the Strawberry Center where he met with staff and students sharing his knowledge of strawberry disease research.

Thank you Dr. Louws for visiting and sharing your knowledge with us! On a personal level, it was a pleasure to reconnect after working together at NC State for 12 years. Who knew that strawberries would offer the platform for reconnecting.