In the last months lots of growers have struggled with the quality of plant material. Not mainly about the variety, but just the quality of the plants. There are huge differences in the quality and this where quality is one of the main factors determining the profit of strawberries. Just some points:
- Generative plant: lots of flowers, not enough leafs to support the plant. It influences the whole year of strawberry growing: small berries, no taste, lots of work, yield relative poor. As the low LAI cannot support the growth of the berries. Value of such plants: negative.
- Vegetative plants: lots of leafs. If there are no flowers, harvest may be delayed with about 1 month or more. Normally i see way more generative plants, but a vegetative plant can also be an issue.
- Disease like Neopestalotiopsis, or Phytophtora or Crown rot. Some growers suffered with more the 50% of the plants starting to wilt. So they had to take out the plants from complete sections or greenhouses. Value of such plants: negative.
- Pests like Cyclamen mites, spider mites, aphids. A hard start to get those under controll
- Clean plants, but full with all kinds of insecticides, so predator programms just don’t work.
- Nice balanced plants, first harvest about 6-8 weeks after planting. Nice big leafs, good strong flower trusses. Value: can be easily twice the normal price. Such plants can grow big tasty fruits for a whole season.
During my last visit to Canada i have seen several growers with plants from different propagators. And really with the values of plants varieing from far negative (so a negative value) till positive even more then 2 times its current price.
One of the issues on the background is irrigation and substrate. As we need very frequent irrigation or better misting right after sticking, the substrate easily gets way to wet, without oxigen. For rooting tips that is a disaster, causing plants dying, black roots etc. Below you see some pictures i took last week in Hungary, from tips stuck in coir. Just normal nice coarse coir (pith, no chips).
