The matter of cold conditioning in strawberry is one of great importance to growers, farm managers and pest control advisors, and one for which patterns of management are established but nevertheless should be understood more to adapt to the changes in varieties and production patterns.
In turn, over the last four years I have undertaken research into further understanding this cold conditioning, in other words dormancy and dormancy breaking, of strawberry with the intention of being able to help people make better decisions around it.
With a great deal of help from growers and their staffs over the past four years, I think I have enough work and data evaluated to start to say something about cold conditioning of strawberry. Since the topic is complex and the data takes a while to interpret, certainly more than the 15 minutes or so generally allotted for extension presentations, I am setting aside a two hour session on Friday, September 11, from 9 am to 11, for a meet up. I am also fortunate to have long time strawberry nurseryman Curt Gaines join me as well to share his decades long knowledge of this topic from the perspective of a grower.
Session will begin with a short introduction about the why and how of cold conditioning in plants, after which I will run through the evaluated data I have so far, and then Curt will share his experience and knowledge with us.
My intention is that this be a learning experience rather than a lecture, so there will be discussion throughout and I schedule the time with that in mind.
Since the meeting will be held in the ultra-modern Santa Cruz County building at 500 Westridge Drive in Watsonville, we will have the ability to project this meeting remotely also. Please email me and I will send the link to you beforehand.