BERRYagent - strawberry advisories for sept. 30, 2002

Strawberry Plasticulture - September 30, 2002 (Monday 3:30 pm)
Vol. 3 No. 59 - Planting time topics

In this issue:
-1. General update - planting of Chandler and Camarosa continues on "normal schedule"
-2. A valuable tool for setting fresh dugs

-1. General update: Fresh dug plants are arriving in large volumes into Sandhills and lower piedmont regions of NC presently from Canada and other areas as well. The first week of October is the favored time for transplanting fresh dug plants in these areas. The Upper Piedmont and Foothills should be finishing up with planting right about now. Growers in the Mountains try to complete all planting by around 25-Sep. The week of 7-Oct will be busy for us in ENC, but even as late as last Thursday I visited an area in Mt. Olive where some of the growers have only recently fumigated - this is a region that plants around the third week of October. I had an inquiry this morning from the Robeson Co (Lumberton) area, and a good time to plant our main varieties in this area is around the middle of October. At Clayton we are setting slightly late this year as we only finished our fumigation on 20-Sep (Figures 1 and 2). One of the important "breaks" we've gotten in the last few weeks are some badly needed rains to fill ponds up to the point where we can establish fresh dug plants (this was out of the question before 25-Aug for many growers who had only enough water to set plugs).

Fig. 1. Alternative fumigants like Iodomethane with low vapor pressure (compared to methyl bromide) will not provide enough "backflow" pressure in the lines to get uniform flow of product without making some important adjustments in equipment. On 20-Sep, Mitchell Wrenn, President NC Strawberry Assn. (with wrench in this photo) teamed up with NC Scientists at Clayton Central Crops to install a special manifold with a very small orifice for restricting flow of Iodomethane and 1,3-D (Telone). This modification allowed our team to apply as little as 1.32 lb per 200 ft of row - with precision! Reddick Fumigants supplied all of the parts to modify this particular methyl bromide fumigation rig. Hy-Yield Bromide provided 3 formulations of Iodomethane to Dr. Poling's project (methyl iodide + chloropicrin: 98:2, 50:50 and 67:33). Good levels of nutsedge control have been achieved with Iodomethane in trials in Florida (Dr. James Gilreath). A number of modifications are needed in "application technology" to make these new generation fumigants work!

Fig. 2. Since 25-Aug, it has been very touch and go as far as trying to find a dry enough window to fumigate our trials at Central Crops. Finally on 20-Sep we were successful! Here you can see some of the first plastic mulch beds that were done in the morning for a Iodomethanc study being supported by Arvesta, Inc., San Francisco. This fumigant is expected to have full registration in 2003, and the 98% methyl iodide + 2% chloropicrin formulation will have a 7-day plant back - something growers in SE US critically need!

Fig. 3. A farm is southern Virginia was planting over this past Friday and through the weekend. This overhead irrigation starts each morning at around 9am and continues into the late afternoon (usually 5 pm). There can be no interruption in irrigation during the day for fresh dug plants. Some years it can take as few as 7 days to establish fresh dugs - last year it was a full 10 days due to windy and sunny conditions.

-2. A valuable tool for setting fresh dugs

Fig 4. This planting aid for fresh dugs is made out of steel and is about 10 ½ inches long. The handle is about 3 inches and is wrapped heavily in duct tape for comfort of the hand.

Fig 5a. We did not have a fresh dug plant at the time this photo was taken, but imagine that the tip of the white paper towel is the bottom of the root system - the tool "grabs" the roots at the end and then using your other hand you gently "slide" the plant into the bed. This tool works well in sandy loam but not clay - it will cut the roots off in heavier soil. In heavier soil stick to a spacing wheel or water wheel to punch holes. Figure 4b. You can better see the curvature of the tool's end in this shot for producing some of these for your farm.

E. Barclay Poling, Small Fruit Specialist
Campus Box 7609
Kilgore Hall - Office 252
NC State University
Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-7609
919.515.1195
919.515.2505 (fax)
919.418.9687 (mobile)

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