AdAgrA 2021: Hidden Treasure

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AdAgrA: Adventist Agriculture Association

Strawberries for Pleasure and Profit

John Dysinger

Barry Mosier

02 Strawberries

So I think we've talked, we talked in the first hour about some of the big challenges, kind of unique challenges of strawberries.

1 is the rain, which, you know, springs tend to be rainy, and that's right when your fruit is developing.

And then the third 1, which is kind of, well, it's very much related to the rain, is the disease issues.

Yeah, so So we're just gonna go through those in particular and give a little more Detail and thoughts Again, I would refer you to the handout that I have done.

And I think Barry actually has some handouts he's going to be giving out here.

But in there, it's got links to, in our part of the country, North Carolina State University has done a lot of the pioneering research on these methods.

Because basically they took what was being done in California and Florida and adapted it for the southeast, for Carolinas, Tennessee, Georgia, and everything.

So anyway, there's links in the handout to articles that go into like frost protection in depth, you know, way more than we can do here.

And it's interesting with frost protection, just to comment, that, you know, it's strange to me that John is fighting frost so much and spraying his berries in Tennessee and in Minnesota where I'm growing.

I've grown 6 seasons and we've never ever sprayed our strawberries for frost.

We're starting later with the matted row system I'm uncovering those as late as possible to prevent them from blossoming so early And then I never grow early varieties.

I'm scared of them, but I did plant some last year So we're going to find out but and so I've never We've covered our strawberries once for frost, and it still froze them.

I mean, it got down to 28 or something, 26, and it still froze them, but we still got a pretty good production that year in spite of it, it just got a lot of the king berries.

But it's just interesting that because of the plastic culture he's using, he's getting strawberries much, much earlier and fighting frost with it more than we are in Minnesota with the matted row system farming them late.

But again, that brings up the point that if you're not worried about them shutting down from the heat, yeah, you can get later bearing varieties.

You can do things to cause them to bear later.

That's the bottom line with plastic culture.

You're trying to get them to bear earlier.

I will say that we're very much in a frost pocket, which, you know, that's where your best soil is.

And that's where we have gravity flow water.

So we chose that knowing that we were gonna have to deal with frost more than if we were on a hill, you know, we would probably have to frost protect half as much.

Another interesting thing about the frost protection is just that our farm is located on a very slight north slope, and so we're behind most of the strawberry growers in our area by 2 to 3 days every single year.

And I think our plants are getting going a little bit later, and so that also delays us and causes us to have less frost problem.

Another thing that we're going to try this year, because we planted early varieties, we planted a variety called Wendy, and that's very, very early.

And so it could be a week or 2 ahead of our other jewel variety.

And what, I was just talking to somebody I buy some organic fertilizers from, and they have a product that you can spray.

I have a sprayer and we spray foliar on all of the leaves of the field.

And in the spring, after you uncover, they're just fighting, using all the nitrogen they can to grow.

And so you spray them with potassium, and I was just talking to the rep today and he said that will gain you 3 to 5 degrees of protection by spraying them a day ahead of time with potassium and then they get off of that nitrogen kick or nitrogen high they're on and slows them down a little bit and so the frost doesn't hurt them as much.

So that could gain you 3 to 5 degrees and row cover maybe, depending on how thick it is, could save you maybe 2 to 4 degrees.

So there are other methods than spraying.

We've always been a little afraid of the spraying just because like you said, what if the sprayer quits in the middle of the night, your crop's done.

So just quickly, if anyone wants to try to use Irrigation for frost protection and this can be for other things besides strawberries We actually did it on our blueberries this year which I'm not sure how helpful it was but anyway Senninger wobblers are what I recommend for frost protection Not only for frost protection, but just as a general sprinkler, garden sprinkler.

They're cheap, they're very uniform, and they don't freeze up like, you know, traditionally big strawberry farms, they use rain birds, and they have to walk the fields all night when they're frost protecting knocking the ice off the rainbirds and With the wobblers we would just get up every hour so So we we gambled a little bit, but it makes for a very long night I'm telling you especially about the third night.

It's like are we sure we want to grow strawberries?

But the the Senninger wobblers sprinkler heads are plastic and they don't Build up the ice like a metal Rainbird does So I would highly recommend those I know a grower in our area who protected you who protected her strawberries through a 17 degree freeze which most people would never recommend you trying to do that But she did it with wobbler sprinklers.

But just, well again, most of you are not looking at commercial, but you know, you're talking about 45 to 60 gallons a minute to frost protect 1 acre of strawberries.

So you have to have a lot of water when you're going for hours and hours.

And I think, if I remember correctly, it's rated for 3 to 5 degrees.

But the neat thing that you can do, and this is 1 of the benefits that we've found in the last few years, we've standardized all our plot sizes.

So we grow on basically 30 by 100 foot plots and it's very easy to put row covers on a 30 by 100 foot plot.

But when you're putting it on a 300-foot field, putting row covers on is a test of your Christian experience.

Because usually you're putting them on when there's a cold front coming through.

And so it tends to be breezy and it's not easy.

So anyway, just an advantage of small plots.

But the other thing with the small plots is that we can easily double or triple cover them.

In every additional row cover you put on is trapping air between those layers, and you can protect, I mean, with 3 layers of row cover, you can protect most anything.

I mean, I guess I should be careful what I say, but you're going to be hard-pressed to freeze your strawberry flowers with 3 layers of row cover on there.

So that's a simple solution, especially on a home scale.

Just have enough row cover to double or triple cover your plants, and you should be good to go.

Now, ideally, you have a thermometer under the row cover, and growers, you know, have these electronic thermometers with probes, and so they can go around their field and be Monitoring the temperature under the row cover because otherwise you're just kind of guessing But again you know for home scale Just always err on the side of You're not going to hurt the plant overnight by putting on 3 layers of row cover so just air on the side of caution Does that make sense?

Any Any other comments on frost no, I'm ready to move on to rain, okay Yeah so This is kind of a bad picture, but it's the only...

This was actually after we had had a bad windstorm that came through and really kind of bent up our caterpillar tunnel.

So, I guess I'll just go through some things we do for rain protection and then you can go through yours.

So again, the raised plastic covered beds in and of themselves are rain protection because it's keeping the plants up and it's keeping excess water from the plants so that in effect is is rain protection And then of course having individual plants with air flow and sunshine around each plant.

The plants will dry out quicker after a rain or whatever.

And so, you know, that's what you're wanting.

You're wanting to encourage an environment where the plants are as dry as possible.

So again I talked some about spraying organic fungicide.

Oxidate, which is a hydrogen, I think it's actually hydrogen dioxide, but I think it's pretty similar to hydrogen peroxide.

Hydrogen dioxide is a more fancy name of hydrogen peroxide.

So, Oxidate is a hydrogen peroxide-based spray.

I think is So oxidate is is a hydrogen peroxide based spray serenade is a Some kind of beneficial bacteria, I don't remember exactly the name or anything, but again, it's working in that kind of way.

Trilogy is actually a neem-based spray, and Somebody was just sharing with me that they've seen some some harmful effects on on soil life With spraying neem so I don't know I haven't actually used trilogy in quite a few years, so you may want to be careful with that Double nickel is another 1 that again is is some kind of strain of bacteria that attacks certain pathogenic organisms And then, this is something we've been experimenting with over the last couple years and we're actually quite excited about it.

A lot of people have tried growing strawberries in greenhouses, you know, it's like, okay, if rain and frost are a big issue, it makes a lot of sense to grow them in a greenhouse.

But there's a couple downsides that people have found.

We've found it, and I've heard it from others.

Number 1 is just the reality that you're tying up your greenhouse all winter with something that's not even gonna be ripe until spring.

So it doesn't seem like the best use of very prime real estate.

But secondly, Greenhouse environment seems to really Encourage the growth of the spider mites do you deal with spider mites?

Not much problem with those Pretty much anybody I've ever known and I'm seeing some nodding heads back there, pretty much anybody I've ever known that's grown strawberries in greenhouses, or hoop houses, has had major spider mite infestations.

So for those reasons, among others, we have not grown them in our hoop houses But we've come up with this You all are familiar with caterpillar tunnels, maybe.

In fact, I think, is it this evening, maybe?

They're putting 1 up out here during booth time so you can see it for yourself.

But basically, it's a low-cost hoop house that can be put up and taken down relatively easily.

So, sometime in March, well early March ideally, we just erect caterpillar tunnels over, right now it's only a third of our plants, but that gives us some insurance.

It actually, even without any ends on the tunnel, they produce almost a week earlier than those that are outside.

So it's a nice solution and you're not having to spray anything or any of that.

And then somebody was asking me about shade cloth.

We haven't done this yet, but we want to try this spring.

You put shade cloth over it, and I think actually we could take our berries in the caterpillar tunnel longer into the summer than those outside.

01 Strawberries

It's exciting to talk about strawberries, but also a little daunting because there's so much that could and should be said.

I was just counting up, I guess we're anticipating our 23rd strawberry crop this spring.

We started in the, we planted our first crop in the fall of 1998.

So it's been, but the thing I like to remind people of, you know, they think, wow, you've been farming for 23 years, that's crazy, you must know everything.

But actually, you know, how many repetitions of something does it take to master it?

So if you think about it that way, we've only had 23 springs.

We've only had 23 shots at growing strawberries, and There's still a lot of mistakes that we make, and we're still learning a lot.

But before we get going here, I wanted to take a poll of the audience here, and I'm suspecting that most of you are home gardeners or just beginning to look at strawberries.

But let's just see how many of, well let's ask it this way, how many of you are growing commercially or interested in growing commercially?

1 day, yeah, well you got to start somewhere.

Okay, and that means the rest of you, how many, well let's ask this, how many of you have grown strawberries before?

You know, we used to do you pick in the early years and people would drive up to the farm and get out of the car and just breathe in deep and say, oh, this is the life.

And I'm thinking in my mind, actually, I'm not sure you would give anything to do this, because you don't know about the nights we spent up frost protecting and the challenges we had with deer and all of that.

So, everybody loves strawberries when the sun is shining and the birds are singing and the freshness of spring is in the air, but they have no idea what goes into bringing that fruit to maturity.

So I think Barry would agree with me in saying you need to count the cost before you dive in.

Strawberries are not an easy crop to grow.

In fact, I would say they're probably 1 of the more difficult crops to grow.

There's just many things that can go wrong with them.

So, not to discourage you, and we will try to bring it down to a level a home gardener can understand.

But hey, you know, you gotta start somewhere.

And so, we're going to, the nice thing about Barry and I doing this together is that we have Where he's from Minnesota.

I'm from Tennessee have 2 very different climates.

We have 2 very different Growing strategies and that's what this chart here.

I apologize if I'm in the way of anybody.

Berry is growing with the matted row system.

That's the way everybody used to grow strawberries back in Mrs.

In fact, just an interesting tidbit, I'm convinced strawberries were Mrs.

Because if you read all she had to say about agriculture, she mentioned strawberries often.

And wherever they moved, they were always planting strawberries.

So we're in good company if we like strawberries.

And James White wrote a booklet, I'd call it, I think it's 40-some pages, on small fruit growing and talks a lot in there.

That's on the EG White app, I think, right?

So Anyway, let's just look at the differences here, the pros and cons.

So Barry does the matted row, we do plastic culture.

And again, very different systems, and they both have pros and cons.

So the matted row, the pros are it's a lower initial investment.

So you're buying 8, 000 plants in the spring to plant an acre.

With plastic culture, it's 16, 000 to 18, 000.

So with matted row, the plantings last 3 to 5 years.

Up north, for the most part, they're still doing matted row, although plasticulture is creeping north.

This is kind of interesting, but because of the techniques used, the plants flower later in the spring.

With plastic culture, you're actually encouraging them to flower earlier in the spring.

So you have to be prepared to protect from frost.

The pros of plastic culture, it's increased picking efficiency, because matted, and I don't want to say too much, because Barry's going to be talking about this, so I'm trying to just go through this quickly.

With matted row, you're making literally a matted row.

It's just kind of a mass of strawberry plants.

Whereas with plastic culture, you have individual plants.

And if you do it right, you can kind of, you know, pick around the plant.

And of course, because it's covered in plastic, wherever there's plastic, you're not gonna have weeds.

I think an average production for matted roe is 8, 000 pounds.

Sometimes they can get up to 20, 000, but that's not normal.

With plastic culture, an average yield is more like 16, 000 pounds, So a pound per plant.

Now you get into areas like California where they grow them, where they keep producing all summer, they're getting 70, 000 pounds or more per plant.

Less ongoing maintenance with plastic culture.

You know, you don't have to renovate the plants after the season.

You don't have to water, weed, maintain them all summer long.

With plastic culture, it's a 1 shot and you're done.

Plant them in the fall, pick them in the spring, plow them under.

Which some people say, wow, that's a lot of work.

In my mind, it's way less work than trying to keep them, especially in an organic system.

So matted row, the cons, I think the biggest challenge, and again, especially for organic growers, is weeds.

You know, you can't cultivate a matted row.

You can cultivate along the edges and stuff.

Slower picking, you know, again, you're kind of having to look for the berries through the plants.

Potential for higher disease pressure because you don't have the air flow and sunshine around the plants.

Usually you plant the plants in the spring and you don't harvest until the next spring.

So it's a whole year from planting to harvest.

Whereas with plastic culture, it's not a lot different, but we plant in September, harvest in April, May.

Okay, the cons of plastic culture, higher establishment costs.

03 Strawberries

Okay, I think each of you is getting a handout given to you that tells about growing the matted row system.

I do like the matted row system for 1 thing, it just seems kind of natural.

The plastic 1, the production is so good and there's a lot of advantages and just I suppose it's straw just seems kind of natural and so I like it that way.

Let's have a word of prayer to get started.

Kind Heavenly Father, we just praise your name for the variety of foods you have made on this earth.

And as we just talk about 1 of them, the strawberries, Bless us and send your spirit to be in our midst just now we ask in Jesus name.

Amen Well Why grow strawberries We've talked about it quite a bit already and there's a few of you who have endured to the end here.

But for me it's the first fruit of the spring.

You know when we think of Minnesota, this is what my strawberry field looks like just last week.

You know, the frost is, the ground is frozen solid.

When we go out in Minnesota, I mean if you went out there with a pickaxe, you would have a hard time to break through that.

You'd be out there, even a backhoe takes a long time to get through that layer of frost.

And to think that that will unthaw And grow things in a few months is almost unbelievable.

The transformation takes place over just a few weeks.

We have a very fast spring, and that's probably why.

For John, he's fighting the frost up in the night, and I'm sleeping well.

And, you know, just because spring comes fast.

And when you're in Minnesota spring is also very precious.

It's cold now and you're out scraping your windows in the winter just like we're doing here now I guess and in the morning and when spring comes everybody has a certain kind of you know how they talk about calves getting out in the spring and kicking up their heels and running That's kind of how Minnesotans are in the spring.

They're ready for something to happen and when there's the first fruit of the spring is just really an exciting thing.

And for me, it's just exciting to be alive.

You know, our family survived an airplane crash while we were missionaries in the Congo.

We should have died in that airplane crash, but I'm just glad to be alive every day.

And it's great to be alive and praising the Lord every single day.

And so when we started our farm, we called it Miracle Strawberry Farm because we expect miracles to happen.

And we do all we can, just like John was saying in a previous presentation, we do all we can, everything we know to do, but we expect God will do miracles in addition to that.

So we'll expect our plants, even though the ground is frozen, we have straw to cover the ground.

But I normally expect it to get to 20 degrees below 0, probably 3 times in a winter.

And this is the ground that I'll be planting soon.

And I can tell you the frost is down deep, but in the spring we'll be planting this ground.

I'm going to plant about 1.4 acres of strawberries this coming spring and I'm just going to kind of walk through the season as it is for us.

And when I first started growing strawberries, there was 2 men in our area growing strawberries, and both of them were in their 80s.

1 of them is now 90, and he's still growing strawberries.

If you decide you want to grow strawberries commercially, and I'd encourage you to try it if you like.

Get somebody who's used to doing it and knows what they're doing.

Talk to them, maybe help them on their farm for a season and see what you're getting into and be informed.

But that will make it a lot easier for you.

But I thought, I told my wife after I visited this man in his mid-80s growing strawberries, I said, I think this growing strawberries is the fountain of youth.

When we started, I probably started a little too big, but we started with 2.2 acres and I planted I think 17, 000 plants.

And that was our first year and wow, we learned a lot.

And you know, as much as you want to research and do things and find out ahead of time, that's best, but sometimes too you have to dive in and get started.

So 1 of the first things we do in the spring, first job of the spring is raking off the straw because that straw has been keeping those plants from freezing to death all winter long.

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Series

Strawberries for Pleasure and Profit

01 Strawberries

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Short Course: Beginning Market Farming

Beginning Market Farming- Part 3

1h 14m

Starting a Market Garden

Growing Better, Not Bigger

1h 6m

Level 2 Home & Market Gardeners

Berry Good Strawberries

48m

Strawberries for Pleasure and Profit

02 Strawberries

1h 1m

Special Interests

Berry Basics for Beginners

1h 24m

Breakout Session 1

Intro to Small Fruit

58m

Intensive: Growing and Selling Cut-Flowers

2. Growing and Selling Cut-Flowers: Hearty Annuals

57m

Market Gardening

Where Do You Go From Here?

57m

Turning Tomatoes into Profit

Turning Tomatoes Into Profit Part 2

1h

Sound Doctrine