Strawberries and Caneberries

Just a head's up to everyone on a brief education event concerning nitrogen management in strawberry on the Central Coast. Good content featuring discussion on nitrogen use, especially the the utility of preplant fertilizer, in the field.

My colleague Steve Koike over at Trical Diagnostics and I wrote a really good article on leak rots caused by Mucor and Rhizopus for the last edition of Progressive Crop Consultant.

Just a few shots below of some unusually large blackberries we are taking out of study looking at fertility modification and tunnel plastic management to reduce "reversion" in this crop (more to follow - it's an interesting study).

Introduction: An interesting phenomenon that I've been called out to a number of strawberry ranches starting about five years ago has been the appearance of aborted flowers, also known by growers as duds, in noticeable numbers right around and after the longest day of summer - June 21, the equinox.

And this one is sure to make a splash. Just bought it on Amazon, and I'll set aside my current read (Plato's Gorgias) to wade into this one. It's supposed to arrive on Friday, so I can start into it already this weekend.