November 2019 - 13

Quebec leading the way
Arend-Jan (A.J.) Both, associate
Ferme Onésime Pouliot grower Valerie Bernier explains table top strawberry production.
Extension specialist in the
Bioresource Engineering
Department of Environmental
Sciences at Rutgers University, is
part of the TunnelBerries project.
TunnelBerries (www.
tunnelberries.org) is a research
and Extension website that serves
as a resource for berry growers. It
focuses on such topics as selecting
tunnel structures and plastics,
optimizing productivity and pest
management, increasing profit
and minimizing plastic waste
generation.
Both was a participant in a
summer tour of berry operations
in Quebec sponsored by the
TunnelBerries project.
He said the raised-trough (tableAt
Fraisière Talfor, Claude Talbot is experimenting with Albion day-neutral strawberries in
a four-bay greenhouse structure.
beginning of June, setting five plants each
in 8-liter rectangular troughs. These sit on
horizontal supports made of PVC tubes
or boards that hang from chains in a
triple-row umbrella shelter.
The target production period is the end
of July and plants are cropped one season
only. In the fall, when they take down
the tunnel plastic, they simply unhook
the chains and lower everything to the
ground - they have learned that their
heavy snows will break down the table
structures that table-top producers in
other regions use.
Chains are their simple and elegant
solution to this problem. Observers also
noted the stiff fabric bands used along the
edges of the pots to keep the trusses of
berries from bending on the sharp edges.
If this material is in common use among
container strawberry producers, this
group had certainly never seen it.
At Fraisière Talfor, Claude Talbot is
experimenting with Albion day-neutral
strawberries in a tall, 230 x 84-foot,
four-bay greenhouse structure, starting
transplants in August in pots, moving
them to cold storage for the winter and
bringing them out mid-April. The harvest
starts early June, has a big peak at the
end of June then builds back up to end
sometime in November, depending on
weather. The berries are both earlier
and later than his field crop - and have
better quality. Here, he has chosen to use
continuous gutters rather than shorter
troughs, setting the plants directly into a
peat soil mix in the troughs. This way, he
feels, they can be watered more evenly and
their roots have more room to spread out.
Definitely a tinkerer, Talbot created his
own system to raise and lower the gutters,
using garage door opener machinery and
At Bleuetière L&L, Laurier Lussier is
exploring exclusion netting for blueberries.
commonly available hardware. This allows
him to space the gutters more closely
together than you can walk between -
raising every other row gives access, and
plants can be rotated between having
their day in the sun near the top of the
greenhouse or being at a cooler lower level.
He is also experimenting with hanging
a second lower level of plants that need
less sun, such as herbs or lettuce, to
maximize the use of the space. With
a dream to do all-indoor production,
especially of strawberries, his creative
engineering may help him reach his goal.
At Bleuetière L&L, Laurier Lussier is one
of the first growers in Quebec exploring
exclusion netting for blueberries. Of his
5,000 highbush blueberry plants, 810 are
now under a single netting structure. The
netting does an excellent job keeping out
spotted wing drosophila, so he doesn't have
to spray (and can get a 30% premium for
the unsprayed berries). The netting also
prevents losses to birds and hail and creates
a mini-climate that is warmer and more
humid. Under the netting, he said berries
top) system incorporated by Quebec
berry growers is not very common
in the Northeast. And a (vertically)
movable system is even less so.
Table-top systems are relatively
common in Europe and Japan.
Movable systems are not common
there either, but a few researchers
are conducting experiments with
them and the results are promising.
" Most table-top systems I've seen
use a series of separate containers
(holding a few plants each) and not
a continuous trough as we saw for
the movable system in Canada, "
Both said. " I think separate
containers are a little easier since
you don't have to worry so much
about a continuous pitch to better
facilitate drainage. Overseas, it
is more common to see table-top
systems in greenhouses than in
high tunnels because the better
environment control in greenhouses
provides for better protection from
outdoor conditions. "
As with all these systems, seeing
them in operation doesn't mean that
they are financially viable, Both said.
" It is not easy to do a thorough
economic analysis, especially when
systems are still being developed
are larger and yields 20-25% higher.
Any farm using a netting structure
for pick-your-own would also discover
another benefit: it is something of a
magical little world inside the structure
that would delight their customers.
Laurier erected his netting structure
several years ago, receiving a cost-share
innovation grant that covered 70% of the
cost of the netting. His first trial has truly
netted some good information. The first
year, it took him 11 hours to cover the
plants, with a crew of himself and a few
friends; this year, it took them only five
hours. (For the winter, he takes it down,
rolls it up, on and stores it indoors.)
Anyone thinking of setting something
and further refined, " he said. " And
doing such research on vertically
movable systems is even more
challenging when yields depend on
system management (frequency
and duration of the movements).
Few people have sufficient funding
to do long-term side-by-side
experiments. "
Both said insect netting
(screening) over small berry
crops is also not very common
in the Northeast. But clearly, it
may become a necessity if insect
pressures keep rising.
" The installation we saw was
effective, but appeared more
expensive than it probably needs
to be, " Both said. " There are plenty
of examples of similar approaches
such as bird netting and screen
houses for reducing sunlight and/
or precipitation damage, but those
are typically used for other crops
and/or in different parts of the
country. "
" The use of insect screening is
more common in greenhouses,
where we need to take special
precautions to maintain sufficient
ventilation rates, " Both said.
" Small screen openings (used
e.g., to exclude thrips) can reduce
ventilation rates substantially, so
we typically increase the overall
screen area to minimize this effect.
For berry production under insect
screen, removing the screening
to prevent damage to the screen
during the winter season is probably
unavoidable, but labor intensive.
Perhaps a different design could
reduce labor assuming that such a
change is cost effective. "
The Rutgers researcher said both
systems were innovative compared
to standard production practices in
the Northeast.
" We'll have to wait and see
whether they will become
mainstream, " Both said.
- Debby Wechsler
like this up would take careful note of
the plastic caps on the posts, the way the
support wires cross and pass through the
posts, and the wrapping on the sidewall
posts that protects the netting. Laurier
said the posts are probably heavier than
needed, but he was worried about wind in
his open location. Also, he said, no matter
how tightly stretched, the netting sags
a bit, so he advises that measurements
should be more generous to allow for that.
If he could, Laurier said he would cover
all of his blueberries. To do a larger area,
though, besides the expense involved, he'd
need some kind of mechanical assistance
to pull the cover. You could tell he's
thinking how to do it. FGN
FGN | NOVEMBER 2019 | 13
http://www.tunnelberries.org
November 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of November 2019
