Strawberries and Caneberries

Our updated for 2022 Organic Strawberry Cost of Production Study is now available, finished it a couple of weeks ago. Nice work once again with Jeremy Murdock and the team at the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at UC Davis.

I walk to and from work every day, and while the walk is short, there is frequently a lot to see and think about. A big apartment construction going on, the people living and not in the cemetery and the comings and goings around the markets on either side of Freedom Blvd.

Just letting you all know that we are having our field day for an update on our biodegradable mulch work in strawberry this coming September 9 at the Naturipe Berry Farms, 154 CA-156. Starts at 9 am and goes until 11.

I am currently underway with a field trial investigating the relationship between spotted wing drosophila and leak rot in strawberry. The hypothesis is that the flies, which wound the fruit with their egg laying are also accelerating the spread of this wound and bruise loving fungus.

The question has been asked of me from time to time about the possible effect of water deposited on the plants by dew on spray efficacy. Spraying after all is using water as a carrier, and having even more water on the plant only adds to the amount being deposited on the field.