The American Society for Horticultural Science has a podcast called “Plants, People, Science”. Take a listen to Episode 7 (The Sweet and the Not-so-Sweet of the U.S. Strawberry Industry) where Gerald Holmes (Strawberry Center, Director) discusses many aspects of the California strawberry industry, including robotics, labor, organic production, diseases, fumigation and more. FYI: Gerald's interview … Continue reading RECENT ASHS PODCAST EPISODE ON CALIFORNIA STRAWBERRIES

Only six weeks away! Join more than 400 strawberry growers, researchers and industry representatives for this year’s Strawberry Center Field Day. Participants will rotate through stations, hearing from Cal Poly students and staff about the latest research taking place at the Strawberry Center. Topics include the newest automation technology, predatory mites, soil-borne pathogens of strawberry … Continue reading Cal Poly Strawberry Center’s Field Day is Aug. 3

It depends on what year(s) you're interested in and if you're talking about public or proprietary cultivars. For example, if you're talking about 2022, 'Monterey' was the most popular public cultivar, grown on 10,003 acres or 33.4% of the total acreage grown in the state. Proprietary cultivars are those held by private companies such as … Continue reading What is the most popular strawberry cultivar grown in California?

The much-needed rainfall this year has already exceeded annual rainfall for the previous 18 years and we still have two months to go before we're out of our normal wet season. As of January 17, 2023 rainfall for the current Water Year (measured from July 1 to June 30) is at 36.5 inches (927 mm) … Continue reading Highest rainfall in 18 years

Figure 1. Bareroot strawberry transplant straight from the box and ready to plant. (this and all subsequent photos by G. J. Holmes) Virtually all strawberry plants grown to produce fruit were planted as a transplant. Transplants take on many forms, but in California we use bareroot transplants (Fig. 1). Why not use seeds instead? Those … Continue reading Why don’t we grow strawberries from seed?

Previous graduate student Scott Cosseboom (Cal Poly AEPS 2015 & 2017) collecting an isolate of Botrytis cinerea from a rotting fruit in the field. Click on image to view Scott’s thesis. (Photo by G. J. Holmes) Welcome to the Cal Poly Strawberry Center BLOGThis idea started at our 2021 Field Day where almost 100 growers and PCAs … Continue reading Let’s get started!