Strawberry plants are typically irrigated with overhead sprinklers during the first 5-8 weeks after planting to rapidly hydrate them, facilitate root-to-soil contact, leach salts from the root zone, and aid in adventitious rooting.
To conserve water and minimize irrigation runoff while managing soil salinity, UCCE Ventura County Farm Advisors Oleg Daugovish and Ben Faber, UCCE Ventura County Staff Research Associate Maren Mochizuki, and Director of the Irrigation Training and Research Center at California State Polytechnic University Stuart Styles compared strawberry plant establishment using only drip irrigation to reduced sprinkler irrigation and conventional sprinkler irrigation.
The results of this study were presented at a field day held earlier this year at a local strawberry field. In addition, a poster was presented at the Irrigation and Water Utilization session at the ASHS annual conference in Palm Desert, CA on Aug. 4.
To view the presentation abstract, please visit http://ashs.confex.com/ashs/2010/webprogram/Paper3285.html
In annual strawberry production in California, drip irrigation lines are installed after bed-making (before mulching with plastic and planting). The standard configuration is 2 or 3 drip lines per bed. As an alternative, we tested 4 lines per bed, one line per plant row.