Source: AgriLife Today
A group of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service collaborators are determined to increase the number of Texas-grown strawberries available to consumers by improving grower productivity, profitability and resiliency.
Determining what it will take to sustain and expand the Texas strawberry industry is the focus of a study funded by an almost $70,000 grant from the Texas Department of Agriculture Specialty Crops Block Grant Program.
Dr. Russ Wallace, AgriLife Extension horticulture specialist in Lubbock, will lead the two-year project. Joining Wallace from AgriLife Extension are Dr. Larry Stein, horticulture specialist, Uvalde; Laura Miller, horticulture agent, Tarrant County; and Dale Rankin, agriculture and natural resources agent, Atascosa County.
Wallace said in the last five years there has been a resurgence of small-acreage Texas producers, due in part to high consumer demand and a willingness by the consumer to pay higher prices for locally grown strawberries.
Texas strawberry growers average between 0.75-1.25 pounds of strawberries per plant or 10,000 to 17,500 pounds per acre. Production costs per acre range from $7,000 to $12,000 or higher, so growers must achieve approximately 1 pound per plant to pay for input costs.
The project will evaluate five goals to increase yield and quality:
- Using bio-based products such as Trichoderma, Bacillus and mycorrhizae to enhance root-zone health, increase rooting and strawberry crown production.
- Incorporate low-tunnel technology to protect quality and prevent fruit diseases.
- Provide alternative fertilizer management strategies that reduce labor and improve variety-specific nutrient uptake in the diverse regional climates.
- Improve weed management strategies to reduce hand-weeding costs.
- Provide Texas strawberry growers, agents and specialists, and the industry with up-to-date, intensive and regionally appropriate production training through statewide workshops, on-farm field days and online training programs.
Wallace said the research will be conducted at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Lubbock and the Prairie View A&M University Research Farm in Prairie View, as well as on six farms: one each at Arlington, Venus, Eagle Lake and Lubbock and two at Poteet.
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