Strawberries

scott2013 · Sep 7, 2015

Anyone on here grow strawberries on a commercial scale? I'm going to start a pick-ur-own strawberry patch for next spring (only about 10,000 plants this year) to go with my blueberries and blackberries.

Scott

flying belgian · Sep 7, 2015

My first job as about an 8 yr. old kid was picking strawberries for the neighbors truck farm. Got paid 10 cents/quart.

gbs · Sep 9, 2015

are you growing them on plastic or strawing them? either way you will need irrigation, best is overhead for establishment and frost protection which is a tricky situation, drip tube for water during fruiting,sell by the pound not by volume with a pick your own operation also be prepared for poorly harvested plants (most not all only want the perfect largest fruit) and damaged fruit left to affect the one that's ripening but we did it several years and it turned out o.k. but that generation of people we sold too are about gone

scott2013 · Sep 10, 2015

(reply to post at 04:45:55 09/10/15)

Yes, I'll be growing them on plastic. I have drip irrigation available and I'm working on a sprinkler system for frost protection. I'll use a crop cover as well. I've been to the 2 closest farms to check out their process and they sell by the gallon which works well for them. They also hire help to pick over the field at the end of the day to clean up the berries and use those berries for making ice cream and slushies to sell (very popular with the customers). I'm only planting about 9,000 plants this year as a trial and next year plan on expanding to 2 acres (30,000 plants).

Thanks for the reply,

Scott

Charlie M · Sep 13, 2015

How do you guys keep them from running all over the place. I always see the commercial plots with narrow rows of plants.

scott2013 · Oct 16, 2015

Tomorrow we plant strawberries. One supplier didn't deliver so we will only have 5000 plants this year but it will be enough for trials.

Scott

scott2013 · Oct 17, 2015

Got them transplanted today. Slow process.
Scott

Strawberries

scott2013

Member

flying belgian

Well-known Member

gbs

Member

scott2013

Member

Charlie M

Well-known Member

scott2013

Member

scott2013

Member

Similar threads