Investigation of the Importance of Hand-Pollination and Root Inoculation for Strawberry Production in Simplified Hydroponics

Commodities

• Fruits: berries (strawberries)

Practices

• Crop Production: cropping systems, season extension, varieties and cultivars
• Farm Business Management: feasibility study
• Sustainable Communities: urban agriculture

Levo International, Inc., is a nonprofit organization based in the Hartford, Connecticut area which seeks to improve food security through the use of simplified forms of hydroponics, the growth of crops in water-based nutrient solution. Hydroponics is a sustainable form of agriculture as it can improve water and fertilizer use efficiency, increase yields per area, and can be used in any location with access to light.            Strawberry production is a $2 billion industry in the U.S., however 99% of it occurs in California and Florida, largely in field settings. Hydroponics is used widely in countries such as the Netherlands and Japan for strawberry production. Hydroponics as typically done requires high initial capital costs and technical expertise, leading to limited adoption in the U.S. Simplified forms of hydroponics, such as those deployed by Levo International, Inc., decrease the required costs and expertise associated with hydroponic production.

            With our first objective we will establish a strawberry production process in simplified hydroponic systems and an associated Integrated Pest Management Plan. We hypothesize that Kratky systems using an IPM plan produce strawberries as well as field production in the Northeast, enabling an increase in strawberry production in the Northeast region. It is thought that inoculation of strawberry roots with Trichoderma species and manual pollination of strawberry flowers improves yields. Our second objective will test the hypotheses that these techniques positively impact strawberry yields. Our results will aid Northeastern strawberry farmers to make decisions on when these techniques make economic sense.

Our first objective (Obj. 1) is to establish a strawberry production process in Kratky systems including an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) plan. We hypothesize that Kratky systems using an IPM plan produce strawberries as well as field production in the Northeast.

Our second objective (Obj. 2) is to test the impact of Trichoderma inoculation and manual pollination on strawberry yields and disease incidence. These are techniques that are thought to improve strawberry yields, but there is limited work to this point to test the importance of either of these techniques. We hypothesize that Trichoderma inoculation protects plants from disease in a Kratky system, resulting in lower disease incidence and higher yields. We hypothesize that manual pollination of strawberry flowers improves yields and decreases the rates of malformed fruit.