January 2019 - 5

SUNDANCE
Monterey's brix count - the sugar content
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Santa Maria and Salinas/Watsonville.
A&W is strong during the winter and
spring as it sources strawberries from
Baja California, Mexico.
Sundance's Moss Landing location,
situated adjacent to scenic Monterey Bay,
was a tour stop on the North American
Strawberry Growers Association's
(NASGA) 2018 Summer Tour.
Having been a farm manager for
over eight years, Vazquez-Celaya has
had to expand her growing knowledge
amid extreme variations influenced by
Mother Nature.
" Two years ago we finally got out of the
drought in California, she said. " It was a
long-standing drought. I never learned
to grow in rain. No one taught me how
to farm in rain. I'd only known ways to
grow during an eight-year drought. I had
to call on my contacts from Driscoll's to
come show me how to grow in the rain,
like they helped me learn how to grow in
a drought. "
Like most growers, she now prefers a
balance of crop-friendly weather offerings.
" If it rains enough and it's cold in
December, it helps with management of
the core group we employ in November, "
Vazquez-Celaya said. " My preference
is a little bit of both (rain and drier
conditions). When it rains and Mother
Nature does what it's supposed to do,
Jacqueline Vazquez-Celaya leads a tour of Sundance Berry Farms during the North American
Strawberry Growers Association's 2018 summer tour.
the plant responds. So, I like a little bit
of rain when it's supposed to rain, and,
cold when it's supposed to be. I like the
seasons to be respected. "
Vazquez-Celaya readily shared her
knowledge of strawberry varieties and how
each performs in the production cycle.
" You learn about characteristics of
certain varieties. Monterey is basically
the workhorse. It's a really strong plant,
very high yielding. You'll get a peak
with Monterey, with lots of flowering
in September. "
Monterey strawberry is a
SEEDWAY_Bejo_VGN_Jan2018_Layout 1 11/21/2018 4:01 PM Page 1
moderate day-neutral cultivar from
California. It has great flavor, while
being more tolerant to high summer
temperatures. The plant has good leaf
disease resistance, but is susceptible to
powdery mildew.
Cabrillo is a newer day-neutral cultivar
released from University of CaliforniaDavis.
This is a moderately strong
flowering variety that is adaptable to
both winter and summer plantings. Fruit
size and firmness is comparable to that
of Albion, as well as San Andreas with
greater individual plant yields and offers
outstanding flavor.
Cabrillo is disease resistant to powdery
mildew, verticillium wilt, phytophthora
crown rot, as well as common leaf
spot, and with proper treatment can be
tolerant to two-spotted spider mite. But it
is susceptible to anthracnose crown rot.
" Monterey will definitely out-yield
Cabrillo, " Vazquez-Celaya said. " Cabrillo
has a really firm characteristic to it that
you really don't see in the Monterey. "
She said Cabrillo is not as sweet.
- is " way higher " than the Cabrillo.
" With Monterey, we will get 8 to 12
brix, " Vazquez-Celaya said. " In a Cabrillo,
we're lucky to do 6 to 8. But Cabrillo
really helps with our peak. "
Plant spacing is variable in Sundance
Farms' fields.
" Our spacing in our plants is about 18
inches in the Monterey. For the Cabrillo,
for the past three years we have done 14inch
plant spacing and then we did 16. It
was fine, and Cabrillo was great. "
Sundance harvests strawberries from
March to October.
" We harvest every two days - every
single row gets picked twice a week, "
Vazquez-Celaya said.
" My yield for my budget is 10,000
crates per acre. That's what I'm
shooting for. Cabrillo will probably
do nine, and Monterey will do 11 - if
everything goes right. "
But massive yields are not usually a
great influencer on profits, VazquezCelaya
said.
" This year, if you ask any California
strawberry grower, is odd. We had a huge
peak in June. This year we had amazing
yields, but in terms of price, it was not good.
" We have a cooler that had never been
at capacity previously. We had to receive
berries, and put them in a storage room,
and kind of rotate in and out, that is how
many berries we had coming in. As far as
the price, any grower knows that (high
volume) was miserable. We were selling
organic berries at about $2. " VGN
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January 2019

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