YEAREND: A slow start and a strong finish for Arkansas strawberries, blackberries in 2023
Dec. 15, 2023
By Sarah Cato
U of A System Division of Agriculture
Fast Facts:
- Arkansas blackberries, strawberries impacted by Dec. 2022 freeze
- Warm, dry weather improved plant health
- Outlook for 2024 strawberry, blackberry crop is positive
(526 words)
(Newsrooms: Download photos of strawberries, McWhirt, Cato)
LITTLE ROCK — Although the tail end of 2022 proved worrisome for Arkansas strawberries and blackberries, 2023 brought brighter days and better conditions.
Issues started pre-planting for strawberry growers, with multi-state shipping delays resulting in later than usual planting dates.
“There were a lot of plant delivery delays last year,” said Amanda McWhirt, extension horticulture production specialist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. “With strawberries we ideally have our plants in the ground mid-September through the first week of October. But that was pushed back for a lot of growers for the 2022-23 season, so plant size was smaller for some people than what they wanted.”
For some, those issues were made worse by an early deep freeze on Dec. 23.
“Temperatures dipped into the teens and single digits in northern Arkansas in December of last year,” McWhirt said. “Although most of our strawberry growers covered plants to protect them, those strong winds we saw blew off some row covers and the resulting cold damage set some growers back.”
Strawberries weren’t the only crop to take a hit with that late December freeze, McWhirt said.
“The high winds and cold weather were very desiccating, very drying,” she said. “That did cause some cane damage in blackberries that carried forward into 2023. Then we had a few instances of freezing around bud break and bloom in some areas of the state where we lost some flowers.”
Coming into the spring of 2023, things started to look up. With dry, warm weather providing ideal conditions for most strawberries and blackberries in the state.
“We had a very dry May which helped reduce disease pressure and improved quality during harvest for strawberries,” McWhirt said. “That dry weather continued into June and July, lowering our disease pressure in blackberries as well.”
Although the dry weather did cause a spike in some insect pests, Aaron Cato, extension horticulture integrated pest management specialist said the lowered disease pressure was worth the tradeoff.
“We depend on early rains to knock immature thrips off of plants, which slows population growth and movement onto spring crops like strawberry. Without that rain this year, we saw large populations of thrips and spider mites in strawberries,” he said. “But the lack of rain really lowered anthracnose pressure, which is better because the potential loss is so high with this disease. It can really get out of control and impact yields, so the dry weather ended up helping out a lot of growers.”
Although disease pressure was low this year, 2023 did see the introduction of Fusarium wilt in commercial Arkansas blackberries.
“The biggest thing this year was the discovery of Fusarium wilt on a commercial blackberry operation in Arkansas,” Cato said. “It’s hard to know what we’re dealing with right now, but growers should be on the lookout.”
Read more about Fusarium wilt in Cato’s blog post.
Looking forward, McWhirt said 2023 strawberry plantings are looking good and her outlook for the 2024 season is positive.
“We had some planting delays, but not as bad as what we saw in 2022,” she said. “Overall, plant size has been better and we haven’t seen any freezes, despite some cooler temperatures. So far, things are looking good for next year.”
Learn more about strawberry and blackberry production in Arkansas at uaex.uada.edu/hort.
To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk.
About the Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system.
The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on five system campuses.
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs to all eligible persons without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status, and is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.
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Media Contact:
Sarah Cato
scato@uada.edu
870-815-9035