This year’s strawberry season is going to be a little late and a little light, but good, says David Handley, a University of Maine small-fruit specialist.

It will be a shorter season for most growers, Handley said, but the quality is going to be good. There was some winter damage to the plants, he said.

Last year, the state’s strawberry growers produced 3.2 million pounds of strawberries. Handley expects it to be a little less this year.

The season in southern Maine is starting this week, while central Maine’s season is expected to start the last week of June.

The strawberries grown by David Pike in Farmington are ready a little earlier than most.

Pike plans to open his pick-your-own fields next week. He’s been selling strawberries at his stand on Wilton Road for some time.

People interested in finding out when one of more than 40 statewide pick-your-own strawberry farms is opening may visit the Maine Department of Agriculture’s Web site, www.getrealmaine.com.

Bountiful berries

New cultivation method in Farmington

yields more fruit, earlier in season

FARMINGTON – David Pike picked his first strawberry this year on Memorial Day. And he has already picked 1,400 quarts from a quarter-acre so far. The berries in his experimental patch are not only coming in earlier, but are sweeter and bigger than last year’s.

State agricultural officials believe Pike is onto something that could extend the strawberry season for growers in Maine. It also could produce weed-free beds.

Pike’s strawberries are coming in earlier this year because of a new cultivation method he is using on one acre of his 2.75 acres of strawberries.

He has modified a technology used in California, Florida and the Carolinas to fit Maine’s climate. He is documenting his methods and the cost-effectiveness of his new system to share with other farmers through a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education grant.

Pike began the experiment in 1998, he said Thursday as he talked with state Agriculture Commissioner Robert Spear at his farm.

Pike has implemented a system at his Farm to You Market fields combining plastic mulch, which warms the soil in early spring, and a white floating row cover, which protects the plants during the winter when they’re most vulnerable.

This gives his plants a head start in spring, resulting in an earlier-than-normal crop.

The use of a protective row cover seems to be more effective against winter kill than straw, which has a tendency to blow around.

Pike said he also uses a drip irrigation system that allows him to feed his plants nutrients when necessary, and he plants perennial dwarf rye grass between his rows of strawberries, which means there is no need for weed control.

Though the method is more costly initially than the conventional strawberry cultivation, Spear said, Pike will recoup his costs with more quantity and quality strawberries.

“I think this is great,” Spear said. “We wholeheartedly support this.”

Twice the yield

Using a conventional, matted cultivation method on strawberry beds produces an average 8,000 pounds of berries per acre, said David Handley, a University of Maine small-fruit specialist.

Pike said he hopes to produce at least 20,000 pounds in his experimental acre this year.

It costs about $5,000 to $6,000 to grow a bed of strawberries using conventional cultivation, while Pike said it probably costs him about $8,000.

“The up-front costs are greater,” Pike said. “But I think the research will show that the yields per acre can be as much as three times greater than traditional growing methods.”

Pike said he has raised his price from $3.50 a quart of strawberries, which he held for about five years, to $4 a quart.

“I feel very justified,” Pike said, looking down at the large, red berries.

The berries have a higher sugar content this year. He measured a berry this year from his experimental patch, and it was about 11.4 percent sugar. A berry measured last year was 6 or 8 percent, he said.

Pike has also modified farm equipment to put the plastic mulch and irrigation system down at the same time, Handley said.

“This is not new technology,” Handley said. “We’ve been using the high-tech system in vegetable production for years and he’s trying to apply it strawberries, a perennial crop.”

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