Hundreds of strawberry growers and researchers from across California gathered in San Luis Obispo for the Annual Strawberry Center Field Day.
Strawberries are the most valuable agricultural commodity in San Luis Obispo County, according to the Agricultural Commissioners’ 2021 crop report, valued at more than $3 million annually.
The California Strawberry Commission and the Cal Poly Strawberry Center came together Thursday to showcase and observe research done throughout the past year.
“Our mission is to increase the sustainability of the California strawberry industry through research and education that’s aligned with growers' needs,” Gerald Holmes, Cal Poly Strawberry Center director, said.
John Lin, California Strawberry Commission director of automation engineering said California produces most of the strawberries across America and needs newer technology.
“That level of performance is going to be constantly needing new innovation, being able to do things quicker, faster, better, etc.,” Lin said.
Neil Nagata has been growing strawberries for more than 30 years and says this is his sixth trip to the event.
“I’m looking for anything that I can take back to my farm and see if it will help me either reduce chemicals or irrigate more efficiently or just do a better job on creating nice, beautiful tasty strawberries,” Nagata said.
Growers learn how to advance their business from research by Cal Poly students and instructors.
The participants rotate through automation, entomology and plant pathology stations.
One of the many projects they are working on uses UVC technology.
“This one uses a UVC light treatment, which shines on the plant, and it helps manage what we call a two-spotted spider mite. It’s a bug that eats the plant and also manages powdery mildew,” Lin said.
Jeff Cardinale, director of communications for the California Strawberry Commission describes how it works:
“It goes through the strawberry rows and sucks up the bugs in the fields, and so anytime the vacuum is working it means less pesticide use,” Cardinale said.
“There’s some research that shows that if you put it out in your field, they could reduce the number of bugs or diseases,” Nagata said.
The Cal Poly Strawberry Center was formed in 2014 as a partnership between the California Strawberry Commission and Cal Poly with the goal of increasing the sustainability of California’s strawberry industry through research and education.
According to the US Department of Agriculture, around 90% of the strawberries in the United States are grown in California.
