florida strawberry festival

Strawberry growers experiment with new methods

Two strawberry farmers in the Ponchatoula area are already seeing blooms on plants that went into the ground last week.

With fair weather, at least one is predicting his first flat of berries on Nov. 10.

Last year was rough for berries, with extremes of cold, weeks of rain and no sunlight for weeks, LSU AgCenter Horticulture Agent Sandra Benjamin said.

Benjamin takes this time each year to visit strawberry fields in Tangipahoa Parish, where about 450 acres are under cultivation, up from 265 acres in 2005. She's there for the parish's 40 berry farmers to answer their questions about soil conditions, fertilizers, insect control and disease prevention.

Benjamin visited Dale Robertson's farm on North Thibodaux Road in Ponchatoula on Monday to check out a report of his leaf tips turning brown and pronounced the plants healthy. Both Robertson and neighboring farmer Eric Morrow are seeing blooms on their Festival variety plants.

Predicting the arrival of the first berries is an iffy proposition at best, Benjamin said. A lot depends on the quality of the plants, which arrive dormant by refrigerated truck. Another factor is the weather at planting time and during November and December. The earlier the harvest, the better for Tangipahoa farmers, who are in competition with California and Florida growers.

Kevin Liuzza with Liuzza Farms said he and father Anthony Liuzza are focusing their efforts on acreage in Amite this year, rather than spreading plants over fields in Independence and Tickfaw as in recent years.

Liuzza planted Sept. 24 through 5 on about 100 acres. He used about half "plug plants" - those shipped with soil on the roots in cell packs. Last year was his first year to try the new shipping method, which is two and a half times more expensive than the bare-root variety. About 90 percent of the crop is of the Festival variety, and he's trying a blank label, just as an experiment.

Liuzza had major problems with the plug plants last year and said his plug plants this year are "nothing to brag about." He thinks it's the late-season heat.

"One hundred degrees on strawberry plants catches hell. We need cooler, dryer air," he said.

He's not anticipating any berries until December.

Morrow, who farms 10 acres, said he's planting Festival variety, some plug and some bare -root, and some bare-root Camino Real, a popular favorite. He started planting on Sept. 26, and in three days put out 140,000 plants, working with a crew from daylight to dark. His plants this year "look real good."

Though he said last year's weather didn't make farming easy, he had berries from Nov. 10 to June 1.

"I had seven good months of berry-picking," he said. "It might just be a record."

His grandparents used to talk about a berry season of six to eight weeks in spring, but he said different varieties and different planting techniques have extended the season. His plug plants yielded early and stayed until the end. This year he's ordered more plug plants. He hopes it will be worth the extra expense.

Though the late September heat "isn't good for transplants of anything," he said the plants are already growing. When they arrived, he refrigerated them for three days so they were cool and fresh before he put them out.

Heather and Dale Robertson have farmed about eight to 10 acres for the past 12 years. Dale's father, John Roy Robertson, farmed the land with peppers and a few strawberry plants for years and still assists in getting the crop out.

This season they have put out 45,000 Festival plug plants, and about 45,000 Camino Real bare-roots will be arriving next week, she said. She attributes the brown-tip worry to her husband "being a worry wart," and the initial planting phase causing a little shock.

Robertson said last year was their first experiment with plant plugs. She brought the first berries to market on Nov. 11 and picked through Father's Day. Her father-in-law said a "souped-up" Festival variety this year is the plant showing early blooms, indicating a repeat of last year's early picking.

"The old-timers only picked in March and April," she said. "It's so expensive nowadays to raise a strawberry. We started out small and are getting bigger and bigger."

She's in charge of selling and delivery, focusing her efforts on the Crescent City Farmer's Market and restaurants Brennan's and Commander's Palace, all in New Orleans. Morrow focuses his deliveries on the Red Stick Market in Baton Rouge. The farmers look out for each other so they don't flood the market.

"We kind of lay off each other," she said. "Each farmer's market has a few farmers, and we don't want to put too many in there so they're overrun with berries."
PLANT CITY -- Alan Jackson, Sugarland and Billy Ray Cyrus are among the musical acts slated to appear at the 2008 Florida Strawberry Festival.

The festival's headline entertainment lineup, released Friday, reflects a variety beyond country music fare, from the Smothers Brothers to Tom Jones.

"We're really excited about it," festival general manager Patsy Brooks said of the stable of entertainment that includes Christian band MercyMe.

The festival again will offer free seating in the concrete bleachers for all shows with gate admission. Last year, fans had to pay for those seats during evening shows.

Concert reserved seating ticket prices range from $10 to $40. Tickets go on sale Monday.

The festival is Feb. 28 through March 9. More information is at www.flstrawberryfestival.com, or by calling the festival ticket office at (813) 754-1996.

Concert tickets do not include gate admission and children 3 and older are required to have a ticket for reserved seating.

The festival ticket office at 2209 W. Oak St., Plant City, will be open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. this Monday only.

After the first day of ticket sales, the office will be open 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Gate admission tickets will also be for sale, $8 in advance for ages 13 and up and $4 for ages 6 to 12. Children 5 and under are admitted free with a paying adult. Admission at the gate is $10 and $4 respectively.

Here is the lineup, including artist, performance time and date and reserved ticket prices: