March 2020 - 8

STRAWBERRIES
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
and Systems Engineering (www.glase.
org) consortium, Allred has been
studying which field-bred cultivars are
best suited for CEA production.
" I started my research with seven
under the best growing conditions. Like
any other value-added crop, greenhouse
strawberry growers are going to have
to establish the right market. Most
greenhouse growers cannot expect to
be competing in terms of volume and
sales with field-produced product. They
won't be able to get the prices they need
to be profitable. Greenhouse growers
have to add some sort of value-added
aspect whether that is locally-grown,
fresher or higher sugar content than
field-grown strawberries. "
Allred said strawberry producers
want to be able to produce the highest
quality strawberries every single day of
the year to supply consumers. This is
achievable with greenhouse production.
" Driscoll's is one of the largest
berry producers interested in doing
greenhouse strawberry production, "
he said. " I expect most of the largescale
field producers are interested in
greenhouse strawberry production and
have considered it as a potential option. "
Identifying cultivars for CEA
Increased production of controlledenvironment
strawberries has been
ongoing for many years outside the
U.S., including the Netherlands, Japan
and Canada.
" There has been an increasing interest
Strawberry plants grown under ambient light levels never developed as many crowns
as plants that received supplemental light treatments. The vegetative growth of the
ambient light plants was also much slower.
in growing greenhouse strawberries in
the U.S., " Allred said. " However, there
really isn't much practical application
of CEA (controlled environment
agriculture) strawberry production in
the U.S. "
He says one of the major reasons is the
limited availability of cultivars for CEA
growers. The breeding of strawberries
has been primarily for field production.
" The greenhouse strawberry market
is very small when compared to
field production. I expect there are
some growers producing greenhouse
strawberries who are using cultivars
that have been bred in Japan and the
Netherlands. Other growers are using
field-bred cultivars and adapting those
to the greenhouse environment. There
are breeding efforts occurring, but I
am unaware of any U.S.-bred cultivars
for greenhouse production that have
been released. "
One of the most affordable ways
for CEA growers to start producing
greenhouse strawberries is to use
off-patent, field-bred cultivars from
the University of California-Davis or
University of Florida breeding programs.
As part of the Greenhouse Lighting
cultivars and very quickly narrowed it
down to two everbearing cultivars that
worked best for CEA production, " he
said. " 'Albion and 'Cabrillo are from the
UC-Davis breeding program. "
Greenhouse production trials
Allred has been performing
greenhouse trials with Cabrillo and
Albion for about a year. The strawberry
plants are being grown in 11-liter
buckets filled with a peat:perlite:coir
substrate mix. Each bucket contains
three plants, which are spaced at one
plant per square foot. Plants are watered
using drip irrigation and fed with a
custom-blended fertilizer, which is a
modified Yamazaki formula.
" We trialed production for a fivemonth
period from Jan. 1 to May 31, "
he said. " There were three different
light treatments. Ambient light was the
control. The daily light integral (DLI)
was as low as 1-2 moles per square
meter per day.
" Supplemental light was provided by
either LED or high pressure sodium
(HPS) lamps. We achieved 98% light
uniformity over the crop canopy. The
DLI was set at 15 moles per square
meter per day, which is on the low end
for strawberries. We weren't looking
at the effect on total yields. We were
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March 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March 2020
