Strawberry Field is Planted

hunterridgefarm · Nov 6, 2012

Drove down to our other farm this weekend to see if the strawberries were in the ground. We lease this farm to a good friend who farms around 700 acres. He has around 9-11 acres in strawberries with several other acres in produce on our farm. I was able to get some pictures of the fields and of the two high tunnels we will experiment with this year. The strawberries in the field will be ready starting in late March, early April and produce until mid June.

The high tunnels were a partial grant for late fall/winter strawberries. They are covered at this time and will add the poly over the tunnels later.

jinman · Nov 6, 2012

David, that's a pretty sight.:thumbsup: I see there are irrigation sprinklers, but also I noticed a hose running under the poly in rows with no sprinklers. Does that mean both sprinkler and drip irrigation? It seems the poly on the rows would cause most moisture to run off into the area between rows.:confused3:

hunterridgefarm · Nov 6, 2012

Jim,

He does use both drip and sprinklers, not sure the exact reason:confused3:. If I see him this weekend I'll ask why.

But he must be doing something right he pick between 700-1200 gallon a day

. We usually go to this farm every couple of weeks, especially in the winter time. I like just walking the rows and seeing the green when everything else is brown.

This guy is a true success story. He is 52 years old and came to the US as a migrate worker when he was 16 years old. He started by leasing one acre of land and going to farmers markets. Work a regular job to save and buy a $1600.00 tractor. Long story short he has several tractors and combines now, leases 700 acres and is very helpful to beginning farmers getting started.

creekbend · Nov 6, 2012

I enjoyed the pictures. Thanks for posting.

flusher · Nov 7, 2012

Neato. The strawberry fields were planted last month in these parts.

MikeA57 · Nov 7, 2012

Jinman thanks for asking that question. I had the same one forming in my mind!

BATTY54 · Nov 7, 2012

It is for frost damage prevention. I used them years ago when frost would freeze the berries. Even if the water freezes around the berry or flowers it provides a layer of insulation to keep them from freezing.
Here is a link to a utube video on the subject.

Sprinklers as Frost Protection - YouTube

jinman said:
David, that's a pretty sight.:thumbsup: I see there are irrigation sprinklers, but also I noticed a hose running under the poly in rows with no sprinklers. Does that mean both sprinkler and drip irrigation? It seems the poly on the rows would cause most moisture to run off into the area between rows.:confused3: