VIDEO: Growing media for strawberries grown under different production systems

If you’re looking to improve your strawberry crop's yield and quality, this video is for you.

Produce Grower and François-Simon Robert, R&D project manager at Berger hosted a live event, Growing media for strawberries grown under different production systems: Performance and water management, on Dec. 18, 2024.

You can watch a recording of the event above. Here's what we covered:

Soilless-grown strawberries have been a relatively novel crop in North America for the past decade.

The benefits over an open-field crop have been described as a better control of soilborne pathogens and water management, extension of the crop season and scheduled cropping.

The variety of soilless systems has led to the use of different growing media, with their impact on water and fertilizer managements being critical.

Coir often appears as a standard growing media, since its use in the veggies industry is widespread. Over the last few years, we and others have shown that peat-based substrates can successfully be used for strawberries. Their unique characteristics make them a wise choice for growers as indicated by agronomical performances (crop yield and fruit quality).

Moreover, they present the advantage of being locally made and aim to lower water use. The objective of this presentation is to show the advantages of using peat-based growing media for strawberries grown in different production systems. We will put an emphasis on water management.