Tenth Street Orchard Tests Sustainable Strawberry Production Methods in Kansas

Strawberries are a summertime favorite, but growing them efficiently and sustainably can be tricky. At Tenth Street Orchard, a pick-your-own strawberry and blackberry farm in Sterling, Kansas, Jonathon Conard set out to find a better way. With a $5,898 NCR-SARE Farmer Rancher grant, he compared the traditional annual plasticulture method (which uses plastic mulch and drip irrigation for single-season production) with a hybrid system that includes the longer-term matted-row technique, where plants spread naturally and produce for several seasons. His goal? Improve soil health and cut input costs while maintaining yield.

Project Overview

The orchard tested a two-year strawberry production system, starting with plastic mulch in the first year and transitioning to matted rows in the second year. Within the second year, two treatments were compared: one in which all plants were retained with runners removed (crown treatment) and another in which plants were alternately removed, allowing runners to fill in (runner treatment).

The study found that the crown treatment yielded the highest overall production and berry size. Soil organic matter remained consistent across treatments, and soil respiration and health scores improved over time, with the annual treatment showing the highest soil respiration by the end of the project.​

Conard's Strawberry Recommendations

• The combination production method can be beneficial, especially during poor growing seasons, as it allows growers to recoup some of their investment in the second year.
• Additional labor is required for summer weeding and row maintenance when using this method.
• Strawberry varieties differ in their runner production, which can impact the effectiveness of the runner treatment.
• To manage exposed soil in areas with slow runner establishment, consider adding a light layer of straw mulch or delaying the removal of plastic mulch until later in the summer to help suppress weeds and reduce labor costs.

"The grant has been a learning experience that has had a positive impact on our operation," said Conard. "The data that has been collected has been useful to determine how our management practices are impacting soil health.  We would encourage farmers to consider that different methods of strawberry production could be viable and that long-term thinking about soil health may be important to consider when deciding which production methods to implement."

About Farmer Rancher Grants 

NCR-SARE’s Farmer Rancher Grant program starts accepting proposals in mid-August. 

View Related SARE Grant:

• Trial of a combination plasticulture / matted row strawberry production system in central Kansas (FNC21-1264)