Strawberry ( Fragaria × ananassa ) production practices followed by growers in the United States vary by region. Understanding the challenges, needs, and opportunities in each region is essential to guide research, policy, and marketing strategies for the strawberry industry across the country, and to enable the development of general and region-specific educational and production tools. This review divided the United States into eight distinct geographic regions and an indoor controlled or protected environment production system. Current production systems, markets, cultivars, trends, and future directions for each region are discussed. A common trend across all regions is the increasing use of protected culture strawberry production with both day-neutral and short-day cultivars for season extension to meet consumer demand for year-round availability. All regions experience challenges with pests and obtaining adequate harvest labor. Increasing consumer demand for berries, climate change-induced weather variability, high pesticide use, labor and immigration policies, and land availability impact regional production, thus facilitating the adoption of new technologies such as robotics and network communications to assist with strawberry harvesting in open-field production and production under controlled-environment agriculture and protected culture.

Anthracnose diseases, caused by Colletotrichum spp., are considered to be among the most destructive diseases that have a significant impact on the global production of strawberries. These diseases alone can cause up to 70% yield loss in North America. Colletotrichum spp. causes several disease symptoms on strawberry plants, including root, fruit, and crown rot, lesions on petioles and runners, and irregular black spots on the leaf. In many cases, a lower level of infection on foliage remains non-symptomatic (quiescent), posing a challenge to growers as these plants can be a significant source of inoculum for the fruiting field. Reliable detection methods for quiescent infection should play an important role in preventing infected plants’ entry into the production system or guiding growers to take appropriate preventative measures to control the disease. This review aims to examine both conventional and emerging approaches for detecting anthracnose disease in the early stages of the disease cycle, with a focus on newly emerging techniques such as remote sensing, especially using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) equipped with multispectral sensors. Further, we focused on the acutatum species complex, including the latest taxonomy, the complex life cycle, and the epidemiology of the disease. Additionally, we highlighted the extensive spectrum of management techniques against anthracnose diseases on strawberries and their challenges, with a special focus on new emerging sustainable management techniques that can be utilized in organic strawberry systems.

Endophytic bacteria could be used as a tool to promote plant growth, enhance abiotic stress tolerance, and inhibit plant pathogen growth. More than 100 bacteria, previously tested to have biocontrol activity against fungal pathogens from our lab, were chosen for pathogen inhibition in vitro with antibiosis assays against strawberry specific pathogens. Three potential endophytic bacteria were tested in the greenhouse for disease reduction and growth performance. Finally, field trials were conducted for fruit yield production. Our results showed that three endophytic bacteria significantly inhibited the growth of the strawberry pathogen Colletotrichum gloeosporioides from antibiosis assays and were identified as Bacillus velezensis strains IALR308, IALR585, and IALR619. Inoculation of these bacteria significantly reduced strawberry disease in greenhouse conditions with pathogen infection. Field trials showed that IALR619 has potential to influence marketable fruit yield when strawberry plants were inoculated twice over the growing season. All three bacteria had the ability to produce auxin and to solubilize phosphate. The antibiotics surfactin and iturin were also detected in IALR585 and IALR619. In conclusion, Bacillus velezensis IALR619 has potential inhibition of strawberry pathogen growth in the greenhouse and possible ability to increase marketable fruit yield in the field.

Parameters such as titratable acids (TA), total soluble solids (TSS), and their ratio (TSS/TA) are critical in determining strawberry fruit quality and the value of new cultivars. Ten strawberry cultivars were evaluated in two environments (open field and high tunnel) in the city of Virginia Beach. The objective was to evaluate the fruit quality characteristics (total soluble solids, titratable acidity TA, and total anthocyanin content) of newer strawberry cultivars grown in the annual hill plasticulture systems in coastal Virginia climatic conditions. Another objective was to measure the correlation between TA and a new digital meter (pocket acidity meter; PAM). Fruits were harvested weekly and TSS was measured using a refractometer. Acidity was measured using the pocket acidity meter and titratable acidity by a single sample titrimeter. Genetics significantly affected total anthocyanin content, TSS, TA, and acidity. The effect of the environments (high tunnel and open field) was not significant on TSS but significant on total anthocyanin content, TA, and acidity. “Flavorfest” had the highest and “Sweet Ann” the lowest anthocyanin content, TSS, and TA among the cultivars. The acidity (PAM data) showed a different level of correlation than TA, with a higher correlation for the open field than the high tunnel. On average, when outliers were removed, there was a regression of TA = 2.22(PAM) + 0.49 between the two data sets, with R² = 0.47.

Greenhouse trials were conducted to evaluate the effect of several locally available carbon (C) sources on weed suppression using anaerobic soil disinfestation (ASD). Carbon sources included rice bran, sorghum-sudangrass, cowpea, buckwheat, paper mulch, brewer`s spent grain, waste coffee grounds, and peanut shells applied at 4 mg of C/g of soil. All trials were conducted in containers of 0.2-m height and 0.15-m diameter. The germination of common chickweed, redroot pigweed, white clover, and yellow nutsedge was reduced similarly with all C sources used for ASD. The addition of distiller’s yeast at 10 kg/ha to C sources at 4 mg of C/g of soil provided similar or better weed control than ASD treatments with C sources alone. ASD treatments in all trials reduced weed viability from 50% to 100% compared to the non-treated control. Redox potential in all ASD treatments during the 3-week treatment was lower (more anaerobic) than the non-treated control.

Many specialty crop growers are transitioning high-value crops from in-ground production to soilless culture due to the diminishing availability of fumigants, increasing pest pressure, extreme weather, and the need for flexible production practices. The objective of this study was to determine the research and educational needs of specialty crop growers who are transitioning to soilless substrates. North American growers were surveyed using an online instrument that incorporated Likert-type statement matrices, open-ended questions, and demographic questions. Additionally, two virtually led focus groups were conducted to further expand upon the quantitative findings with descriptive data. Respondents indicated the most important factors in considering whether to adopt soilless substrates were improving, managing, and reducing overall plant quality, disease management, and crop loss, respectively. The most important research needs were understanding the effects of substrates on crop quality and uniformity, fertilizer management, and economic costs and benefits/return on investment. In both the grower survey and focus groups, crop quality and uniformity were among the highest-scored responses. Food safety, disease and pest management, consumer perception, substrate disposal-related issues, transportation, and return-on-investment were also identified as important factors when considering soilless substrates.