2024 Berry Primer Webinar Video Recordings

Thursday, March 28, 2024

                      

Video's from the 2024 Berry Primer

Last week, we had a great lineup of speakers at the 2024 Berry Primer Webinar.  On Monday, I shared the recording on Nematode Survey Results and Management with Perennia’s Matt Peill and Silica and it's Importance in Plant Health and Yield with University of Toledo's Wendy Zellner so make sure to check below for those two videos if you have missed them. 

Today, I finally finished editing two more video's:

AAFC Berry Breeding and Variety Evaluations with AAFC's Beatrice Amyotte:  Click Here

Integrating Biologicals into your Spray Program with Perennia's Dustin MacLean: Click Here

Monday's videos:

Nematode Survey Results and Management with Perennia’s Matt Peill:  Click Here  

Silica and it's importance in Plant Health and Yield with University of Toledo's Wendy Zellner:   Click Here

Introducing Perennia’s Online

Pest Management Guides

April 10th at 12:00

To sign up for a demonstration of this game changing tool please follow the link: 

Click Here 

 

A couple things to keep in mind for your 2024 Strawberry Planting

You’ve done your prep to get your 2024 strawberry field ready, selecting the site, planting the cover crops, dialing in the soil fertility. Now is not the time to rest on your haunches.  Here are a few things to look out for in the spring to keep this planting on track. 

When you receive your strawberry plants open the boxes and inspect the plants. If they warmed during shipping leave them open and place them in the cooler, in a single layer, to quickly get them back down to temperature.  Reseal the bags after a couple of hours and the plants have cooled. The plants are usually packed in a plastic bag within the box. Inside the bag they are usually packed with shredded paper or moss.    This should be damp, if it is starting to dry out add a small amount of water and reseal the bags.  Do not wet or soak your plants until you are ready to plant.   If you notice mold growth at this time, call your nursery right away.  Store the dormant bare root plants as close to -2 c as you can without cooling past -2.7 c.  For shorter periods of up to a week, plants can be held as “warm” as 4 c. 

Before planting should begin make sure to have a well thought out herbicide program mapped out and the product on hand.  This will allow you to make applications in a timely manner when plants are still dormant and at proper timings though the season.

Some growers will soak their plants in a “secret sauce” of water, biologicals and phosphorous before planting.  If nothing else this will re-hydrate the roots before putting them in the soil.   If you are using this technique, consider adding “the sauce” to the bag in the box rather than removing plants from the bag and soaking in a central tank. Putting the plants in a central bath may spread disease from box to box and across varieties.  Alternatively, so that planting is not held up and disease is not spread, biologicals and phosphorous can be added to a drench with a root fungicide after planting.

Planting should take place as soon as the ground is fit, and the soil temperature reaches 10 c. Planting depth is very important. Crowns should be placed so that the middle of the crowns are at the soil line.  Roots should be spread out in a downward direction rather than bent.  This may require deeper tillage than is required for other crops.  Make sure you have enough soil to work with before bringing the transplanter to the field and adjust the shoe depth from there.   

If the weather is dry, it is important that irrigation is provided after planting. This is important for rehydration but also to settle the soil around the roots creating root to soil contact.  Some growers will also roll after planting in order to facilitate the settling of the soil.   I believe this also provides a more uniform surface for herbicide application thus making your herbicides more effective.

As the plant is establishing it may be important to get an Orondis Gold, or Aliette applied for the control of phytophthora crown rot.  Phytophthora spreads rapidly under wet conditions and can take out large sections of rows very quickly.

Losing mother plants at planting can quickly affect the final stand so care should be taken out of the gate.  Keeping these steps in mind will help get the plants off to a good start putting more berries in the basket in the next years.