Got a rather lengthy text from a colleague this afternoon concerning J rooting of strawberry plants - question was: does it really make a difference whether or not a strawberry transplant is J rooted?
Let's go to the Green Sheets, which have been a real treasure trove of information.
The one included in the link below was a summary of field work done by the late Warren Bendixen, who served as the Farm Advisor in Santa Maria for many, many years:
http://www.calstrawberry.com/research_library/98-18.pdf
This work was done by Warren in response to a shift going at that time in Santa Maria from 40" inch beds with 5- 6" deep planting slots with very little J rooting to the 64" beds so familiar today, but with planting slots which would result in a lot of J- rooted plants.
Key takeaway from the paper, it's in bold because it's so important.
Plants with J roots reduced fresh fruit yields by 18.5%.
If this doesn't get your attention as to why we shouldn't be J rooting, I don't know what will.