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CYBER FARM TOUR
Every year we try to outsmart the weeds, and we always lose!
We try extra irrigations to sprout the weeds, and then either try to knock
them down mechanically (with a tractor), burn them with a 'flamer', or cover
 them with black plastic mulch. (We've tried sawdust and straw, but it
always blows away!) Some years we plant into bare ground, and other years we
install plastic mulch first, and plant through it. We install a drip
system (a tube with tiny holes in it) before we install the mulch. And we do
our best to secure it well because it has to endure 40 mph winds at least a
few times during the winter.
Deciding when to plant is part science, part art, and mostly guesswork.
Strawberry plants will behave very differently according to how much
chilling they get during the winter. If they have too much, the plant will
be very vigorous but will not produce much fruit. If they get too little
chilling, the plant will be too weak to produce much fruit. The transplants
(bare-root plants)
 | | Planting the bare-root
plants |
are grown in the northern latitudes (far to the north of
the fruit growing regions), where they will get more chilling
than they do
down here. Then they are stored in coolers until they are ready to be
planted. Should you plant them with one week, two weeks, or three weeks of
cold storage? The answer depends how much chilling they will get during the
coming winter on your farm. Will it be a cold winter or a warm winter? This
is where you have to guess. The wrong guess can make a huge difference.
And of course, we mustn't forget the weeds. Since we don't fumigate the
soil with herbicides we have a wonderful, unending supply
of weed seeds in our soil. They come up around the plant. They come up in
the furrows. They even come up wherever a bird has pecked a hole in the
plastic mulch! We have to weed about six times after planting before we
begin to harvest. And sometimes (like this past winter) it's so wet you
can't keep up with the weeds. You pray for a dry spell and work like
crazy when it comes.
We have to fight off the deer and the wild pigs too. We cross our fingers
that they don't discover the field of newly planted strawberries in the
fall before there is enough for them to eat in the surrounding hills. A
dozen deer can do a tremendous amount of damage in just one night. We put
out mountain lion scent to discourage them, and it works pretty well. We
also try to plant peas or something else that they like nearby.
Birds are a problem in the early spring, but they tire of strawberries after
a couple of weeks and don't bother us much after that. Snails creep in from
the surrounding hillsides, and we pick them off by hand.
Now for the insects. There is a little critter called a two-spotted spider mite
which lives on strawberry leaves and can overwhelm a plant. We keep a close
eye on them and when they start to increase in numbers, we release
'predator' mites to attack them. These are little guys which are
raised in nurseries and then sold to us farmers; we put them out into the
field and let them chow down on the bad guys. During the Spring we have to
do several 'releases' to keep the two-spotted spider mite under
control.
 Then, we can't forget our friend the lygus bug. This little fellow, which
looks like a small light brown fly, loves to munch on the strawberry flower.
This is not good, because wherever he munches, the fruit does not develop
properly and becomes misshapen. I think the word 'gnarly' is
particularly apt! Anyway, we try two strategies with this bug--plant flowers
which will provide habitat for its predators, and release nursery-raised
predators into the field.
We almost forgot our vegetables! At any given time, most of the farm is
occupied by vegetable crops or cover crops. We plant our vegetables in the
spring, for harvest in the summer and fall. When the vegetables come out, we
plant "cover crops" to protect and improve the soil through the winter
months.
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