Strawberry Growers Meeting will address needs, future of industry
Meeting will be June 26 on Texas A&M University-San Antonio campus
SAN ANTONIO – A Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service expert involved in the Texas Strawberry Project is asking strawberry growers throughout the state to attend the Strawberry Growers Meeting June 26 on the Texas A&M University-San Antonio campus, One University Way in San Antonio.
The meeting, sponsored by the National Strawberry Sustainability Initiative with funding from the Walmart Foundation and administered by the University of Arkansas, will be from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. in the Patriots Casa Ceremony Room.
“The purpose of the meeting is to gather strawberry growers and those interested in growing strawberries to discuss their needs and concerns, and the future direction of strawberry research and education in Texas,” said Dr. Russ Wallace, AgriLife Extension vegetable specialist, Lubbock.
He said Texas Strawberry Project funding ends June 30, so the meeting is to help “continue with the current excitement and success of strawberries statewide.”
The Texas Strawberry Project is a statewide collaborative effort of AgriLife Extension and Prairie View A&M University designed to address the misperceptions and constraints regarding sustainable strawberry production for both large and small-acreage growers in Texas, Wallace explained.
“Our main goal is to revitalize the industry and increase sustainable strawberry production in both current and traditionally non-producing regions of Texas. We do this through actual on-farm production experiences, grower-sponsored field demonstrations, scientific research, grower conferences, field days, consumer evaluations, and marketing and sales.”
He said Phase I of the project focused on research to demonstrate to growers alternative techniques for growing strawberries in our different climatic regions statewide.
“During Phase II, we increased our number of new growers and conducted more outreach by including our AgriLife Extension county horticulture agents in our training, allowing them on-farm experience with the growers in their counties, and invited our growers to record their strawberry marketing and sales.” Wallace said.
Wallace said the Texas Strawberry Project has been extremely successful and has opened the door for many small acreage growers to add this high value crop to their farming systems.
“We hope strawberry growers throughout the state will attend this meeting on June 26 and find out about the experiences of many of our new strawberry growers in Texas,” he added.
Wallace said as a result of these efforts, participants found they can grow strawberries successfully in the majority climates and regions in Texas, even in regions with high soil pH and high temperatures. They also found that growers who did not pay excellent attention to their crop during the growth and development stages had the poorest results, and that the good quality berries they sold were highly valued by consumers.
For contact information on the meeting, growers can contact the AgriLife Extension office in Bexar County at 210-467-6575 or http://bexar-tx.tamu.edu/, or Dena at the AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Lubbock at 806-746-6101 or [email protected].
For Texas Strawberry Project information, go to https://www.facebook.com/texasstrawberryproject.
