Strawberry plant production has been an issue in our region for many years.
Tips (daughters) are produced on runners (stolons) arising from the mother plant. Plant growers then root the tips to produce plug plants and then sell the plug plants to fruit producers (mainly field growers).
Here's the flow of the strawberry system: Tip Producer to Greenhouse or nursery plug producer to Fruit grower.
Most strawberry tips are produced in the field in Canada to avoid diseases such as anthracnose and then are sold to Eastern U.S. greenhouse propagators in the Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Florida.
Currently, nearly all tip production is in outdoor fields vulnerable to flushes of multiple diseases. Recent examples include an outbreak of Strawberry Mild Yellow Edge Virus (SMYEV) and Strawberry Mottle Virus (SMoV) in 2013, Strawberry Mosaic Virus in 2014, and 2024, a very aggressive strain of a fungal disease (Neopestalotiopsis) for which there is no fungicide with more than 60-percent efficacy.
When Canadian growers experienced shortages due to Neopestalotiopsis this year, the supply to Mid-Atlantic producers was severely impacted. Interest has been growing for a U.S. source of disease-free strawberry tips. Strawberries can be produced in annual and perennial field production systems.
Read more at American Farm Publications.