Harvesting of high tunnel-grown strawberries has started from southern to central Indiana.
Early cultivars in open-field plasticulture are fruiting in southern Indiana, with harvest right around the corner. The crops are generally a week earlier than last year. Late cultivars, second-year patches, and fields covered with straw in the winter are slightly lagging behind.
Moving north, early cultivars grown on plasticulture have begun to bloom, while plants on matted row systems are generally behind.
For the open-field grown strawberries, growers across Indiana should remain vigilant in safeguarding the crops against frost damage. The last frosts at the end of March caused some damage in southern Indiana. Still, the flowers were generally okay if you applied protection with either row covers or overhead irrigation (Figure 1). Set fruits can tolerate lower temperatures than open blooms.
Figure 1. Frost protection using overhead irrigation. The picture was taken on the morning of Mar. 28 at Southwest Purdue Agricultural Center.