With stories of ‘fish kill’ due to unusually low water temperatures in Florida perhaps it was the wrong time to visit! Even Florida has a winter.
It has a Winter…..but a very productive one. For a Northern European strawberry grower, Florida can be confusing. Fields are established in September, often using plants lifted up in Canada, and harvest starts in ? The varieties plants are primarily those that require short days to initiate fllowers. Tha main June bearing strawberry varieties grown in Germany, Holland and Belgium are also ‘short day’ varieties (Elsanta, Sonata, Cambridge Favourite, Korona etc.) but in those countries there is only a relatively short period during which ‘short days’ coincide with temperatures that are sufficient to support growth and development. For the rest of the time the plants must be dormant in order to withstand the Northern Winter. In Florida the initiated flowers don’t wait for the end of Winter. They are expressed immediately and keep coming: Providing a crop from ? right through into April at which point growing conditions in California give that state the edge and Florida drops out.
As the fish kill reports suggest – the climate is not always perfect. Florida strawberry growers cope with many challenges. Rain comes frequently causing several important problems:
RAIN =
- Misshapen fruit
- Collectotrichum crown and berry rots
- Xanthomonas leaf spot.
Growers are increasingly working with field scale tunnels in an attempt to eliminate these problems and to increase early production.
At the Gulf Coast Research Station Vance Whitaker is responsible for breeding better berries for Florida. Work at this station, directed by Craig Chandler, has produced many famous strawberry varieties. Conditions in the Florida winter are so favourable to infection that Vance must be ruthless in discarding any materials that shows susceptibility to crown rots. This research station is right at the front line when it comes to matching horticultural science with the needs of a changing world. Up in Michigan, Ontario and New York there is lots of excitement about small scale, local and very sustainable production. Down in Florida they are scaling up! Working on better systems for the production of various key horticultural crops. Helping growers in Florida and around the Caribbean to meet the rising demand for fresh, clean, fruit and vegetables. In the Caribbean this work is especially important because it is raising farm incomes and the living standards of whole communities. The impact of this is global.
