Research finds ways to save water, strawberries during cold temperatures

Florida’s strawberry producers must protect their multimillion-dollar annual crop from freeze damage. Traditional methods involve constant spraying of water during a cold snap. Growers are looking for ways to use less water, yet produce the same amount of crop.

New University of Florida research shows growers can keep using both their current sprinkler spacing and low pressure or enhanced real-time irrigation control to save water – and they can produce the same strawberry crop yield during mild freezes.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” said Michael Dukes, a UF/IFAS professor of agricultural and biological engineering and the lead author on the study. The improvement? An automated control treatment that used real-time dew point measurements – rather than temperatures -- to turn the system on and off, he said. Growers typically turn on their sprinklers when temperatures reach 1.1 degrees centigrade, or around 34 degrees Fahrenheit, and keep them on until the sun melts the ice. During the years of the study, temperatures dipped below 1.1 degrees centigrade for 50 hours. In each of the two years prior to the study, freezing periods were longer, with about 150-200 hours below that temperature.

Source: www.newswise.com