One of the first posts to this blog regarded the importance of chill, both field and supplemental, to the day neutral (ie Albion, San Andreas, Portola, Monterey among others) strawberry varieties.  Right now, field chill in MacDoel is in the area of 600 hours, which is plenty, even in the light of the very warm stretch of weather that took place in September.  Still, be reminded that this abundance of field chill should not be considered to be a replacement for supplemental chill taking place in the cooler after the transplant has been harvested.

However, this year because of the delay in transplant harvest growers really should be striving to strike a balance between getting adequate supplemental chill to obtain good vigor and planting sufficiently early to get sufficient plant growth here in the fall.  To accommodate this idea, every one of the day neutral varieties listed above can be well established with supplemental chill of 7 to 10 days, but no less.  More days of chill, up to 18 days, are of course in the printed recommendations, but this year a large delay in planting may not result in acceptable plant growth and establishment.

If one follows the suggestion given above, supplemental chill will end up being on the low side, and subsequently growers must be more vigilant than usual in planting practices.  Transplants must not be allowed to dry out in the field during planting, transplants should be properly placed the planting hole (no “J” rooting, and only portion of the crown above the soil line) and irrigation for establishment should keep the beds at field capacity for a few weeks.