US: Strawberry plant growers thrive in high altitude setting
“We don’t do strawberries, we do strawberry nursery plants,” said Scott Scholer general manager of field operations, Lassen Canyon Nursery in Macdoel, just south of the Oregon-California border. “It’s a niche market in the Klamath Basin.”
The growing season starts around April 1, when the strawberry plants are put in the ground. They grow throughout the spring and summer. In October the weather turns cold, making the plant act like it’s winter, building up starches.
That’s when strawberry nurseries harvest, removing the plants from the ground and shipping them to warmer climates, such as southern California. Once there, the plant will act like it’s spring and time to make fruit, even though it’s only November or December. That way, the fruit is ready to harvest in the spring.
For Lassen Canyon Nursery, most of the plants go to commercial fruit growers in California. Some go to Florida, Louisiana and Arkansas. Plants are grown across the Klamath Basin, in Bonanza, Merrill, Malin, Tulelake and Dairy. But all of Lassen Canyon’s strawberry plant fields in the area are in Macdoel.
Ready for harvest
Lassen Canyon Nursery has weather detectors in the fields and Scholer waits for at least 250 hours of sub-45-degree temperatures before harvest starts. This year it started Sept. 25. Scholer hoped to finish this week.
Initially harvests are done at night from about 10 p.m. to 10 a.m. because the plants — especially the roots — need to be kept cool.
As long as the ground isn’t frozen, Scholer and his crews can keep harvesting. Scholer said in the past he has harvested in the snow, the layer of white insulating the ground and keeping it from freezing.
Once nighttime temperatures in Macdoel drop below 20 degrees, the roots can freeze. It’s too cold to harvest and operations are moved to days. On Sunday, Oct. 27, Scholer and his crews harvested all night, then turned around and started the daytime shift that week.
Source: www.opb.org