In Louisiana, strawberries traditionally are planted from the beginning of October through mid-November. Production can start as early as late November when plug plants are used and it can continue through the beginning of June.
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What type of strawberries are grown in Louisiana?
The Klondike, Daybreak, Headliner, and Tangi strawberries are all varieties that were traditionally cultivated in Louisiana. These varieties were developed throughout the 20th century, and each of them has now “run out” (i.e. become susceptible to disease). Their flavor is superior to varieties under cultivation today such as the Driscoll and Chandler, which were developed for size and shipping resistance. The heritage varieties, by contrast, have a higher sugar content, a more balanced sugar / acid ratio, and a more delicate flavor. Cultivation is still possible, though yields are much lower. They are produced in Southern Louisiana, particularly in the southeastern parishes of Tangipahoa and Livingston. Many of the farmers in the area are descendants of Sicilian immigrants, and they have cultivated strawberries and other fruits for over a century. The Tangi strawberry is currently being cultivated by Henry Amato, a farmer in Tangipahoa Parish. Mr. Amato employs traditional methods and grows the berries on mulch beds of locally gathered pine needles as opposed to black plastic. Mr. Amato harvested his first crop in the summer of 2003, and the yield is 1/5 than the one achieved with commercial varieties. To his knowledge, Mr. Amato is the only farmer currently raising Louisiana heritage berry varieties, though the stock is available to anyone interested through the Louisiana State University agricultural extension as well as the US National Germplasm Repository in Oregon. Back to the archive >
Where are strawberries grown in Louisiana?
These immature strawberries will turn red and be ready to pick in ten days.
Louisiana consistently ranks in the top ten U.S. states in strawberry production. These immature strawberries will turn red and be ready to pick in ten days. The sandy loam and silt loam soils of Tangipahoa make it Louisiana’s premier parish for growing strawberries. The sandy loam and silt loam soils of Tangipahoa make it Louisiana’s premier parish for growing strawberries. William Fletcher oversees planting at Fletcher Farm.
AT A GLANCE Location Tangipahoa Parish Flora Birdbill spike grass, scarlet oak, little floating heart Fauna+Insects Southeastern blue sucker, Hodges’ clubtail, gopher tortoise Five years after the 2016 Tangipahoa River flood, William Fletcher’s tractor has stalled in the middle of his five-and-a-half-acre strawberry farm in Ponchatoula.
The flood washed away several inches of topsoil, exposing stumps, and now Fletcher steps back to consider the problem. “If I don’t find what I need in the barn, I’ll find something that works,” he says. Moments later, he stands beside the ridger blade, cautious as he uses his weight to tighten a new bolt.
“Like I tell my kids, everything out here is hard, heavy and sharp, and it will not apologize when it hurts you.” Fletcher moves with the calm of someone on his second week of vacation rather than a farmer facing the zero hour. In a few days, a truck loaded with strawberry plants will arrive from California, an annual delivery to local farmers.
- He will buy 90,000 Festival plants — the most consistent, in his experience, and the ones that produce berries that taste, many say, like they’ve been dipped in sugar.
- After the delivery, two migrant laborers who have worked for him for the past decade will return to the farm.
- Twenty-two miles west of Fletcher Farm, Rhonda Landry-Poché recalls the six feet of water that flooded her farm in102016.
Landry-Poché lost her home and all of her equipment. The stress caused her mother to have a stroke. While recovering, her mother gazed onto the property where strawberries had grown for 90 years. “Where’s my berries?” she asked. Landry-Poché said, “Momma, I’ll do everything in my power to continue this.” In 2017, for the first time since 1916, no strawberries grew on the farm, but Landry-Poché kept her promise the following year.
- Now, the farm covers more than six acres planted with San Andreas and Camino Real strawberries.
- As at Fletcher Farm, all of the berries here are hand-planted, hand-picked, and hand-packed in the field where Landry-Poché’s granddaughter Daisy now plays with her dolls.
- The idyllic moment seems out of another time.
Contrast it with a handful of the worries that lurk in a strawberry farmer’s psyche. Hurricane season precedes planting, and one danger, says Landry-Poché, is that a storm will collect salt from the Gulf and release it onto the fields, killing the plants.
- Heat and rain — two steady topics of Louisiana conversation — are also factors.
- In intense heat, the berries will melt, and there’s always a risk of losing the bulk of the crop in a season of heavy rain.
- In a mild winter, plants will bloom early, creating concerns of a late freeze like the one in February 2021, when plants at both farms were loaded.
“This is weather-related from front to back. Ultimately, it’s out of our control,” says Fletcher, whose great-grandfather farmed the adjacent land in the 1930s and ‘40s. Fletcher’s grandfather was drafted late in World War II and served with the occupying force in Japan before returning home to work on the farm.
Like his great-grandfather, grandfather and father, Fletcher grew up on the property, observing farm work and absorbing the history of his homeplace. His father warned him of the difficult life outside his bedroom window, but Fletcher smiles as he says, “All I remembered was the good stuff.” On his shed, a two-foot line in red paint documents the 2016 flood waterline.
“I didn’t want to mark the entire length because I didn’t want to be reminded of the flood every time I looked at it, but this is history,” he says. Everything on his farm, in fact, signals a memory or a glimpse into future crops. There are, for instance, the magnetic signs on the doors of his truck that identify him as Strawberry King of the annual Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival.
What is the best weather to plant strawberries?
Temperature and Humidity – The ideal temperature for garden strawberries is between 60 degrees and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. However, the plants can tolerate temperatures as low as 22 degrees Fahrenheit, as long as the plant is protected from frost. High humidity can encourage the development and spread of powdery mildew, so provide plenty of air circulation for the plants.
Can you plant strawberries in Louisiana?
In Louisiana, strawberries traditionally are planted from the beginning of October through mid-November. Production can start as early as late November when plug plants are used and it can continue through the beginning of June.
Are Louisiana strawberries in season?
Strawberry Season – Before introducing you to the best strawberry farms in Louisiana, I wanted to give you a little insight into the strawberry picking season. 
The growing season can vary depending on the farm’s location within the state. This means that just because strawberries are ready in Southern Louisiana, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the strawberries in Northern Louisiana will be. The harvesting season ranges from mid-March to late May; however, many farms will be harvesting until Labor Day as long as it doesn’t get too cold.
Are strawberries ready in Louisiana?
Louisiana’s farms most often offer you-pick strawberries, blueberries and blackberries. Growing seasons for these berries vary throughout the state, but April is typically prime time for strawberries, with blueberries and blackberries following from May through mid-July.
Which state has the best strawberries?
Favorable climate conditions make the state of California the largest producer of strawberries in the United States.
How does temperature affect strawberries?
Introduction – Strawberry ( Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) is one of the most important globally cultivated fruit crops. Strawberry fruit is widely consumed not only for its flavor and appearance but also for its medicinal value, such as eyesight protection, improved blood circulation ( 1 ), and anticarcinogenic activity ( 2 ).
Unfortunately, strawberries are perishable and susceptible to mechanical injury and physiological deterioration, which cause serious economic loss. Too high or too low storage temperature after harvest will have an important impact on the internal and external quality of strawberry fruit ( 3 ). At present, some researchers have made in-depth studies on the mechanism of low-temperature storage of strawberry after harvest ( 4, 5 ).
The evaluation of strawberry quality for the market is focused on visual and internal characteristics, such as color, hardness, acidity, sweetness, and aroma ( 6 ). With the development of economy, more, and more people are concerned about the nutritional quality of strawberries.
- Strawberries are good sources of natural antioxidants and its antioxidant activity are positively correlated with anthocyanin or total phenol content ( 7, 8 ).
- In addition to its antioxidant activity, anthocyanins are also important to fruit color during the ripening of strawberry fruit, grapes, and cherries ( 3, 9, 10 ).
Strawberry aroma is one of the most popular fruit flavors, and the flavor strawberries is mainly determined by a complex mixture of esters, aldehydes, alcohols, and sulfur compounds ( 5, 11 ). Among the identified aromatic compounds, esters, and furanones are consider the main aroma determinants in fresh strawberry.
- Changes of physiological and molecular occurred in plant in response to low or high temperature have been extensively studied ( 5, 12 – 14 ).
- HSPs are stress proteins with anti-stress effects, which can be expressed in large quantities under stress such as high temperature, drought, peroxidation, and heavy metals ( 15 ).
Soluble sugars, amino acids, organic acids are important compatible substances, which played crucial role in the resistance of plants to environmental changes ( 16, 17 ). The richer the osmotic adjustment substances, the better the adaptability to the environment.
Softening of fruit is closely related to the disassembly of primary cell wall and middle lamella structures and the decrease of soluble pectin ( 18 ). Studies have shown that the changes in the composition and structure of the cell wall are caused by the coordinated action of hydrolytic enzymes ( 19 ).
Temperature regulation is the most important environmental factor for extending the shelf-life of strawberry fruit. Cordenunsi et al. ( 20 ) reported that the quality of strawberry fruit was maintained better at 6°C for 6 days than at 16 and 25°C, and low temperature inhibited the accumulation of anthocyanins and vitamin C, but promoted soluble sugars.
- Higher storage temperatures increase respiration rates and shorten storage life, resulting in fruit quality loss ( 5, 21, 22 ).
- Strawberry fruit stored in different relative humidity (RH) environments at 0.5, 10, and 20°C for 4 days were studied by Shin et al.
- 22 ), who found that firmness and soluble solid concentrations decreased at higher storage temperature, while anthocyanin concentrations were increased rapidly at 20°C as the fruit ripened.
Proteomics is a kind of discipline that studies the composition of cell proteins and the various activity characteristics of proteins ( 23, 24 ). Compared with genome, proteomics can provide a direct basis for explaining the essence of life phenomena.
- In proteomics, Mass Spectrometry (MS) technology is the core content of its research, mainly to realize its molecular identification, modification, and the interaction mechanism between various molecules through the correct determination of the mass of the protein molecule ( 25 ).
- At present, researchers are devoted to the study of the biological characteristics of fruits during the pre-harvest and post-harvest storage processes ( 26 ).
However, there are not many research data on the proteomics of fruit changes ( 27, 28 ). The objective of our study was to investigate the response mechanism of strawberry fruit harvested at the red ripe stage to different temperatures. Although the effect of temperature on the quality of strawberry has been studied by some researchers ( 5, 9, 22 ); however, not all of the physiological quality data were assessed at the same time, and limited research has been conducted on protein expression.
In addition, previous studies have shown that the response temperature of strawberry heat shock protein is generally 30–37°C ( 29 ). Under low temperature storage conditions, strawberry fruits could maintain acceptable quality for up to 7 days, but for high temperature stress, the time is much shorter ( 5 ).
Therefore, strawberry fruits treated at 4°C, 23°C (simulated room temperature), and 37°C (heat shock temperature) on day 3, 7, 10, and/or 20 were collected for determination.