Strawberries are always a big hit with customers at local spring farmers markets with demand greater than supply most seasons. Production practices adopted by area farmers, and researched by the Ohio State University, have produced yields in excess of 20,000 pounds per acre.

In a 2014 survey conducted by Ohio State University, Ohio strawberry farmers reported receiving more than $3 per pound at retail markets. With potential gross incomes greater than $60,000 per acre, strawberries may be a high value crop option for area farms. 

Strawberry growers that are able to harvest the earliest crops often have the marketing edge. Traditionally Ohio growers have produced strawberries using the matted row or ribbon row production methods which consist of June bearing varieties.

The Ohio State University Piketon Research & Extension Center has researched and identified a strawberry production technique to help growers harvest a crop up to four weeks earlier, the plasticulture strawberry production system. For those willing to make the investment in time, management and resources, the strawberry plasticulture system may be a good choice for some farms.

Strawberries are increasingly being planted in the fall on black plastic mulch covered raised beds as a way to extend the harvest and marketing season up to a month earlier than those grown using the matted row technique, thus capturing more profit from the high demand for local early harvested strawberries.

One of the main advantages of this system is a potential earlier harvest providing a competitive edge in the market place relative to traditional matted row strawberry production systems. Other potential advantages include higher yields, cleaner and larger berries, better weed control, enhanced fruit quality, less disease and increased harvest labor efficiency.

Strawberries are a labor intensive crop requiring stoop and hand labor to harvest fields every two days at peak harvest. However, strawberry harvesting may be easier and more automated in the future?

The Ohio State University is working with a Springboro-based company to explore the potential of an automated harvesting robot that will be able to pick strawberries 24 hours per day – reducing the need for human harvesters. Adev Automation teamed up with Ohio State business development specialists, agricultural engineers and horticulture researchers in 2014 to test a prototype of a strawberry picker that detects if a strawberry is ripe and automatically harvests it.

This strawberry harvester will be showcased at an upcoming strawberry field day at Piketon, Ohio.

If you would like to learn more about strawberry production and to view a field demonstration of the automatic strawberry picking robot, plan to attend the Ohio State University Strawberry Workshop & Field Night at the OSU South Centers, 1864 Shyville Road at Piketon, Ohio on May 21, 6-9 p.m, registration and dinner begins at 5:30 p.m. Strawberry field research to be showcased include:

•Winter protection techniques

•Israeli drip irrigation demonstration and management

•Fertigation and nitrogen management

•Row cover management

•June bearing, day-neutral, ever-bearing cultivar evaluations

•Pest and disease control

•Spotted Wing Drosophila monitoring and trapping

•Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques

•Petiole sap analysis demonstration

•Automated strawberry picker field demonstration 

You must register for this workshop. The cost to attend is $20 per person, which includes educational handouts and dinner. To register, contact Charissa McGlothin at mcglothin.4@osu.edu or 740-289-2071, ext. 132. For reports from past years strawberry research trials at the OSU South Centers at Piketon or other horticulture research results visit our website at http://southcenters.osu.edu/hort

For more information on strawberry production or to be added to the OSU South Centers commercial horticulture LISTSERV to receive Ohio fruit and vegetable crop updates contact Brad Bergefurd, Bergefurd.1@osu.edu or call the OSU South Centers at 800-860-7232 or 740-289-3727, ext. 132.