Research delivers sweet news for strawberry fans
DURHAM, N.H. Researchers in the U.S. Northeast have figured out how to stretch strawberry season.
The season usually lasts only four to six weeks in the region, but work at the University of New Hampshire has extended the harvest from July into November.
Researchers harvested strawberries grown in low tunnels for 19 consecutive weeks. They also found that the three-foot-tall tunnels significantly increased the percentage of marketable fruit, from an average of about 70 per cent to 83 per cent.
Now in its second year, the research project by the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station is part of a larger, multistate effort to optimize protected growing environments for berry crops in Northeastern states and the upper Midwest.
The project is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The university’s part is focused on improving berry quality and the role everbearing, or day-neutral, varieties may play in extending the length of strawberry season.
Graduate student Kaitlyn Orde said the university is growing one of these varieties on three different mulches “to determine if there are any differences in total production, production patterns, runner production and fruit characteristics.”
She said they also are investigating the role the plastic-covered low tunnels play in improving berry quality. They are evaluating five different plastics for the tunnels.
The strawberry crop is important to New Hampshire farmers. Agricultural researcher Becky Sideman estimates the retail value of the crop is about $1.85 million.
Researchers in Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina and New York have conducted preliminary research on similar systems.