Cal Poly Strawberry Center Celebrates 10 Years

BY ANNMARIE CORNEJO

The Cal Poly Strawberry Center has grown to be a premier institute in the last decade — providing a vital link between academia and the burgeoning California strawberry industry. Growing from a vision with humble beginnings to a steadfast hub of research and resourcefulness, the center has garnered more than $7.7 million in funding for research and shepherded more than 150 students through its doors.

In 2013 the California Strawberry Commission partnered with the college with an initial $1 million contribution to support the center’s first three years of operation — a one-of-a-kind concept rooted in the hands-on learning model that defines Cal Poly. The mission was simple: to assure the sustainability of the California strawberry industry through research and education that is aligned with growers’ needs.

And while the focus on applied research that incorporates both teaching and learning experiences for Cal Poly students, faculty and strawberry farmers remains the same today, the impact of that partnership 10 years later is now being realized in the industry. New advancements in pathology, entomology and automation are continually being made and the students who have worked and done research at the center are advancing in their careers.

“Our success is contingent on educating students and producing research that will benefit the industry,” said Strawberry Center Director Gerald Holmes, who was hired to launch the center in 2014. “It is also about the trust we have earned in the industry and the relationships we formed from the very beginning.”


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Joseph Ramirez (Plant Sciences, ’23) is now in his second year of graduate studies working on two projects at the Strawberry Center related to plant resistance and soil-borne pathogens. The Watsonville native hopes to follow in the footsteps of both his grandparents and father who have worked in the strawberry industry for many years.

“I work both in the lab and the field, it is a great blend of both worlds,” he said. “As an undergraduate, I developed a strong interest in plant pathology, and now, as a graduate student, I’m working on two projects that can benefit the industry. This experience has sharpened my research skills, given me hands-on field experience, reinforced my passion for supporting growers, and enhanced my overall knowledge of the industry. The Strawberry Center truly embodies Cal Poly’s Learn by Doing model, giving students like myself the opportunity to apply what I've learned in the classroom to real-world challenges in agriculture.”

Holmes chuckles as he recalls his first few days standing at a plot of land designated to grow strawberries, which had never been grown on campus before. “I asked a lot of questions and quickly realized that I needed to tap into the experts in the industry. We didn’t even have the equipment on campus needed to till the field and prepare the soil for an industrystyle strawberry bed,” Holmes said.

Local strawberry growers were quick to respond and offer their expertise and labor, ultimately setting the center up for success. “They did an excellent job working within the limits of what we had and I gained much respect for them and what they do and how they do it,” he said. “I hope our success is a point of pride for them as well as they helped us to get this going. It has always been a team effort.”

CALIFORNIA IMPACT

This experience has sharpened my research skills, given me 
hands-on field experience, reinforced my passion for supporting 
growers, and enhanced my overall knowledge of the industry. 

Joseph Ramirez (Plant Sciences, ’23)

Strawberries are California’s third highest grossing crop, bringing in $2.68 billion in 2022. There are more than 400 growers, shippers and processors that grow 90% of U.S.-grown strawberries, many on multi-generational family-owned farms. In all, with direct and indirect impacts, strawberry farmers contribute $5.2 billion to the economy.

Just like other valuable commodities, the challenges are many. Pests and pathogens threaten to diminish the crops, while inefficiencies increase the cost of production. The work done at the Strawberry Center ensures that California strawberries remain sustainable and globally competitive. The program brings together farmers, entrepreneurs, researchers, educators and students to focus on development and deployment of innovative automation and mechanization technologies related to planting, pruning, pest management, picking and processing in the strawberry industry.

“Cal Poly is unique in its Learn by Doing ethos and its location on the coast is ideal as it is right in the middle of the state’s main growing districts,” said Dan Legard, retired vice president of research and education at the California Strawberry Commission. “The strawberry industry, knowing the value of research, had invested in the commission to meet those needs and Cal Poly was eager to partner with us. It was an opportunity to both train students and give value back to the industry through students and research.”

"We are fortunate that one of the largest agricultural schools in the United States is located on California's Central Coast — which is also the best place in the world to grow strawberries. Partnering to create the Cal Poly Strawberry Center was natural. The Strawberry Center brings living laboratories onto campus to create experiential learning, industry-relevant research, and ideation. Collectively this industry-academic partnership is an innovation center that advances strawberry farming and supports the Teacher-Scholar Model,” said Rick Tomlinson, California Strawberry Commission president.

Today, the impact is already being felt in the industry as Cal Poly graduates fill various roles. “The strawberry industry, like all areas of farming and agriculture production, is a vast, interconnected web,” Holmes said. “From the people who prepare the land, provide the fertilizers, run the labor crews, drive the trucks and forklifts to those that sell the clamshells and market the fruit — our graduates are exposed to it all.”

Each year the Strawberry Center hosts a field day event for industry members to gather together and see the latest research underway. The event has grown steadily in the last eight years, with a record 620 attendees in 2024.

Legard, who worked closely with Holmes over the years, gives much credit of the center’s success to his leadership as the director. “His calm demeanor brought confidence in an industry that didn’t always trust academia because they didn’t know how the funding was allocated,” he said. “Today, nearly every company in the industry has been touched by the center in some way. Cal Poly not only produces critical research but graduates with expertise in industry and that is extremely valuable.”

INCREMENTAL SUCCESS

The Strawberry Center’s multidisciplinary approach has led to great strides in pest and disease management. “We started with one acre of strawberries and now have three,” said Holmes. “But the biggest difference is that we now have as many as 30 research projects at a time, compared to just the one that got us started all those years ago.” Holmes estimates that the center has now studied more than 1,500 genotypes for resistance to the various diseases that threaten strawberries.

Each year the California Strawberry Commission publishes a request for proposals to gather a list of top research priorities. “We want to be sure we are working on their big problems, things like the Lygus bug, spider mites and diseases and soil-borne pathogens,” said Holmes. “Eradication of those challenges isn’t realistic but there are definite improvements that can be made to ensure the industry remains sustainable.”

The center has also grown its focus on automation, securing additional funding to invest in researching and developing tools that can be used by the industry to increase their success. In 2016, John Lin was hired to serve a joint appointment as both the California Strawberry Commission’s and the Cal Poly Strawberry Center’s director of automation engineering. Over the last five years, the Strawberry Center has successfully developed and commercialized several types of enhanced strawberry production equipment such as the Lygus bug vacuum, spray rig, strawberry decapper, plastic hole puncher and hoop house disassembler.

Increased focus on automation technologies will help improve strawberry production and lead to a higher-quality product, supplying a steady stream of healthy produce. The introduction of advanced technologies, including automation capabilities, are critical to the long-term competitiveness for domestic production of strawberries and other specialty crops within the international agricultural marketplace.

“The Cal Poly Strawberry Center is the new model of innovation in automation solutions in agriculture,” said Walt Duflock, vice president of innovation at Western Growers, an agricultural advocacy organization. “The partnership between the Strawberry Center and the California Strawberry Commission is resetting the standard for what we can do to bring innovative solutions to the industry. It remains one of the best private-public collaborations in U.S. specialty crops.”

Developing New Varieties of Strawberries

BY LAUREN MCEWEN, fourth-year agricultural communication major

Sarah White (Plant Sciences, ’20) works for Driscoll’s as a research associate in the Oxnard strawberry breeding program. White works in two breeding programs, one developing a summer plant and the other, a winter plant. “My team is working towards advancing selections with a priority focus on improved fruit quality, flavor, harvest efficient traits and optimal production curves,” she said. “This is crucial to the industry because it drives the development of new cultivars that are more resilient to diseases, pests and environmental stresses.”

Additionally, she manages ongoing host resistance trials for seven other breeding programs, screening for tolerance to powdery mildew and two-spotted spider mites, both of which are common challenges in the field. She also collects disease severity data, analyzes it, writes reports and presents the findings to colleagues, with opportunities for international travel to other Driscoll’s research plots.

As a student at Cal Poly, she became involved with the Strawberry Center her second year, working as a research assistant for Assistant Professor Shashika Hewavitharana and Kelly Ivors, then a plant pathologist in the center. “During my time there, I gained a solid foundation in laboratory work, including making selective media, mastering aseptic techniques for isolating pathogens from plant tissue and understanding the importance of maintaining a clean and well-stocked lab,” White said. One of White’s most memorable contributions to the Strawberry Center was conducting hands-on tests to determine the resistance of various strawberry cultivars to the pathogen Macrophomina phaseolina.

White’s position at Driscoll’s is complementary to her Cal Poly education and work experience at the Strawberry Center. The Cal Poly Strawberry Center offered a robust introduction to the strawberry industry’s needs and fueled her desire to continue in the research sector. Cal Poly’s Learn by Doing ethos “equipped me with essential skills such as teamwork, accountability and real-world problem-solving, which have been invaluable in my current role,” White said. “The center’s work, especially in research and development, is instrumental in driving innovation and ensuring the industry's long-term sustainability.”

Alumni Feature

BY LAUREN MCEWEN, fourth-year agricultural communication major

Kenneth Romero (Agricultural Science, ’16), a pest control adviser with TriCal Inc., began working with the Cal Poly Strawberry Center in its infancy, assisting researchers in organic and conventional fumigation trials. He worked closely with Strawberry Center Director Gerald Holmes and other center researchers to develop fungicides to control soil-borne pathogens. Romero also began working for TriCal Inc., which specializes in soil management and research, as a student intern, at the recommendation of Holmes.

Romero said working with the Strawberry Center was an invaluable experience because of the opportunity to “learn the industry’s most challenging obstacles and try to come up with viable solutions.” As a pest control adviser, Romero writes pest management recommendations for growers across San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties, continuing the work he began as a student. “I do consider myself fortunate that my studies directly correlated to what I now do on a daily basis,” he said. “We still work with Cal Poly on various studies regarding soil-borne pathogens.”

For Romero, seeing the growth of the Cal Poly Strawberry Center since its inception is inspiring. One of the events Romero contributed to as a student and continues to partake in is the annual field day. “The field day has grown exponentially and creates a place for the industry to collaborate and show all the hard work that the center has accomplished,” he said. “I’ve gone almost every year, and it seems to have a larger crowd with more trials and cutting-edge technology. The integration of the college’s engineering departments has also been fun to watch.”

 

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