- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Published on: May 11, 2018
![Part of the strawberry field at Manzanita Berry Farms near Santa Maria where UCCE advisor Surandra Dara conducts trials on biologicals and other potential remedies for soil borne diseases, weeds and insects.](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/Green/blogfiles/52434small.jpg)
Part of the strawberry field at Manzanita Berry Farms near Santa Maria where UCCE advisor Surandra Dara conducts trials on biologicals and other potential remedies for soil borne diseases, weeds and insects.
The strawberry industry ended a long good-bye to methyl bromide in 2016. The fumigant had been used for decades to kill a wide range of soil-borne pathogens, weed seeds and insects, permitting the California strawberry industry to flourish. Scientists determined it was an ozone-depleting chemical in 1991, but its phase-out was delayed for years because of lack of equally effective alternatives.
Strawberry farmers now use a combination of approaches, including fumigation with other chemicals, soil oxygen deprivation, biofumigants, and beneficial microbes that improve soil biology. A greater arsenal is needed.
“Growers have three or four chemical...
Focus Area:
Agriculture
Focus Area Tags: Agriculture
Comments: 1
Viewing -3--3 of 1