ARS | Publication request: CULTIVAR SELECTION FOR PEST MANAGEMENT IN ORGANIC STRAWBERRY PRODUCTION

Submitted to: Organic Strawberry Production Manual
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: August 25, 2011
Publication Date: May 17, 2012
Citation: Bull, C.T., Martin, F.N. 2012. Cultivar Selection for Pest Management in Organic Strawberry Production. In: Koike, S. T., Bull, C. T., Bolda, M., Daugovish, O., editors. Organic Strawberry Production Manual. University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. p. 15-24.

Interpretive Summary: The US organic food market represents a 7.1 billion dollar industry that provides organic products to the US consumer. In order to continue to meet the increase in demand for organic products development of plant cultivars that resist disease and perform better in organic production systems are needed. We report the results of cultivar trials conducted in organic and non-fumigated strawberry productin fields and propose several cultivars that may be useful to organic growers, conventional growers that no longer fumigated and home gardeners. Different cultivars may be useful depending on the disease problems in a given growing area.

Technical Abstract: Commercially available strawberry cultivars are selected in conventional production fields in which the soil has been fumigated with methyl bromide and chloropicrin as well as intensive chemical management of insect pest and foliar and fruit pathogens. There is very little disease resistance in these plants as a result and their performance differs in non-fumigated and organically managed soils. Cultivar yield in organic production systems and non-fuminated soils can not be extrapolated from production in conventional production ssytems. The higher yielding cultivars appear to be resistant to a number of soilborne fungal pathogens including Phytopthora.