Nobody stoops to pick strawberries at Brian and Jenny Rijke's produce farm. Workers stand upright and harvest the juicy, red fruit dangling chest-high from strawberry plants rooted in bags of soil-free coconut fiber held aloft on fence posts. It almost looks like a vineyard.
The Rijkes grow half an acre of ever-bearing (or day-neutral) strawberries under the cover of three plastic-covered cold-frame structures, each 28 ft by 300 ft. Protecting the berries from overabundant rainfall is a key benefit of this innovative hydroponic growing system. An under-mounted "spaghetti" drip irrigation system automatically delivers an optimum mixture of water and fertilizer into the bags of coconut-fiber substrate nourishing the strawberry plants — about 20 minutes' of moisture daily.
More than anything, strawberries hate to be overwatered and they particularly disdain water on the leaves. "They need water from below but not from above," said Paul Dentz, father-in-law to Brian Rijke and consultant on the new strawberry installation, west of Morrisburg. He was a conventional strawberry farmer for decades before his retirement several years ago.
Read more at Farmers Forum.