Researchers gauge organic, midwestern growers’ interest in day-neutral strawberries

Researchers are asking the upper Midwest’s organic growers about their interest in growing day-neutral strawberries.

Unlike strawberries that produce a burst of fruit for a few weeks – in the upper Midwest, it’s late June – day-neutral strawberries continue producing new flowers and fruit throughout the season.

The brief, online survey from researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Minnesota is intended for specialty crop producers in the upper Midwest using “organic practices (certified or not).”

“The purpose of this survey is to gather information on grower interest in adopting/integrating day-neutral strawberries into their pre-existing production systems,” according to an email from the researchers. “This information will be used to direct funding effort for research and education around this and other high-value crops.”

University of Minnesota Extension’s Annie Klodd last year recommended Albion, Evie-2 (Evie-II), Monterey, Portola, San Andreas and Seascape as day-neutral strawberry varieties found in trials to be well-suited for Minnesota.

“San Andreas and Albion were found to be the sweetest in UMN research,” Klodd wrote in an article. “Portola had the highest yields but was the least sweet of the six varieties tested. However, all varieties tested are relatively sweet.”

Above, day-neutral strawberries growing on white plastic in a trial at Cornell University. There was ripe fruit in November. Photo: Annie Klodd