Location: Crop Improvement and Protection Research
Project Number: 2038-22000-016-058-A
Project Type: Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Apr 30, 2021
End Date: Dec 1, 2021
Objective:
The objective is to assess the impact of three different plastic types on soil temperature, yield, and disease severity during strawberry production.
Approach:
Three plastic types (green, white, and clear) were placed on beds with 48” center-to-center widths before planting strawberries in October, 2020. Each plastic type was arranged in a 20’ section per block and 4 block replicates in the entire experiment. Treatments and replicates were arranged in complete randomized block design. In the middle of replicate of each treatment we placed two temperature logging probes to record soil temperatures at a 3” depth for the duration of the season. Strawberry plants, cultivar ‘Monterey’, were planted in these beds in November, 2020 and cultivated by grower standards. Plants will be checked monthly for disease severity, and yield per treated area collected once- or twice-weekly as needed for the duration of the season. ANOVAs will be used to compare yield between treatments. Soil temperature will be converted into a degree day model before statistical analysis.
