Integrated Biological and Cultural Practices Can Reduce Crop Rotation Period of Organic Strawberries

A team of researchers conducted a replicated on-farm experiment with the break period between strawberry crops (continuous strawberries with broccoli residue incorporation, one-year break, two-year break, three-year break, and seven-year break) as the main plot and cultivar as the split plot in Moss Landing, Central Coastal California. We hypothesized that the use of non-host rotation crops for Verticillium wilt plus bio-fumigation with broccoli, incorporation of mustard cover crop residues, use of relatively resistant strawberry cultivars, and compost application would suppress disease sufficiently to grow strawberries successfully in rotation every two or three years. Although a positive correlation between break period and marketable fruit yield existed, integrated use of biological and cultural practices allowed one to three-year breaks to have a statistically similar yield as seven-year break for this low Verticillium dahliae pressure field over a five-year period. This article is not subject to U.S. copyright law