Due to a lack of commercially available organic strawberry transplants, organic producers have traditionally had to use conventional strawberry transplants. While organic strawberry producers have expressed dissatisfaction with this method, it has been difficult to transition away from conventional transplants in part because there is little data on their performance relative to conventional transplants.
To address this critical question, Dr Lisa Bunin, Director of Organic Advocacy, and Stefanie Bourcier, CEO of Farm Fuel Inc, led a research trial on five organic strawberry farms on the Central Coast of California to test the success of public varieties of organic versus conventional transplants.
Specifically, the goals of this Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) funded project were to compare disease susceptibility (leaf wilting) and crop productivity of organic and conventional transplants. Overall, the results clearly demonstrate that organic strawberry transplants performed comparably to conventional transplants with respect to plant growth, disease occurrence, and yield. 
Based on these findings, farmers participating in the study expressed complete satisfaction with the performance of organic strawberry transplants and plan to continue growing them. In turn, the nursery participating in the trial began producing over one million organic strawberry transplants for the 2019/2020 season in response to positive farmer feedback and increased market demand.
Conventional strawberry nurseries that fumigate soils with methyl bromide and other synthetic chemicals prior to propagation are currently the main source of transplants for both conventional and organic production systems.
While many organic strawberry growers have expressed dissatisfaction with having to use conventional transplants, organic transplants simply are not commercially available. In part, commercial availability of organic transplants has been limited due to a lack of tested varieties as well as a lack of supply during the traditional planting season.
Moreover, the “commercial availability” clause contained in the USDA’s National Organic Program regulations indefinitely allows organic growers to legally purchase conventionally propagated transplants without delineating a timeframe for phasing-out their use.
As such, there is little push from market forces to make organic strawberry transplant varieties more available. Research and investments are needed to address these limitations to the “commercial availability” of organic transplants.
The goal of the proposed project is to compare organic bare root strawberry transplant performance with conventionally managed transplants in organic fruit fields. In collaboration with five pioneer organic growers, OFRF will conduct a comparative study at five sites through Santa Cruz County.
These sites are designed as replicated randomised complete block trials that will look at canopy diameter, disease wilt scores and harvest yields to compare the viability of organic bare root and conventional bare root transplants.
