Recent News
Come visit us at Open House
Apr 12, 2024
Cal Poly’s 31st annual Open House is upon us! This annual event happens this weekend and serves to welcome new students, families, and supporters to learn about student life at Cal Poly. The Strawberry Center team can’t wait for you to come by on Saturday and visit our booth located in the Cal Poly Farm Shop! Stop by and talk with some of our staff and student employees about our mission and activities as well as agriculture student internship opportunities. And don't forget to spin our prize-wheel to win a fun surprise.
We hope to see you there!
Pathology group attends joint APS-Soil-borne Plant Pathogens Conference
Apr 4, 2024
The Cal Poly Strawberry Center was well represented at the joint APS-Pacific Division meeting and the 69th Annual Soil-borne Plant Pathogens Conference, held in late March at Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR.
In attendance were:
• Yu-Chen Wang (Cal Poly alumnus and current Plant Pathology Farm Advisor, UCCE)
• Dr. Shashika Hewavitharana (Strawberry Center, Pathology Program Leader) moderated the Student Presentation Session of the Soil-borne Pathogens Conference
• Cooper Calvin (current Cal Poly M.S. student) won a travel award from the APS-Pacific Division and gave an oral presentation on Macrophomina root rot management
• Mary Steele (Cal Poly alumnus and current Ph.D. student at Washington State University) won a travel award from the Soil-borne Pathogens Conference and gave an oral presentation on wheat cover cropping impacts on soil microbiome and Macrophomina root rot
• Celeste Gonzalez Chavez (Cal Poly alumnus and current M.S. student at UC Davis) won 3rd place in the APS-Pacific Division student poster presentation on fungal species associated with branch canker and dieback disease in pear
• Joseph Ramirez (current Cal Poly M.S. student) gave an oral presentation on host resistance to Macrophomina root rot and Verticillium wilt.
Congrats all!
Center hosts high school students
Mar 21, 2024
26 Hours of Science & Technology in Agriculture high school student tour
The Cal Poly Latinos in Agriculture Club, in collaboration with the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences (CAFES), hosted over 100 California high school students for this year's 26 Hours of Science & Technology in Agriculture event, which provides students with a 26-hour tour of Cal Poly's diverse agricultural offerings, centers, and departments. Center plant pathologist Shashika Hewavitharana and several students provided instructional demonstrations and hands-on activities focusing on basic strawberry plant diseases and diagnostic tests.
Angular Leaf Spot (ALS) showing up
Mar 21, 2024
We are seeing quite a bit of angular leaf spot (ALS) in our fields and getting some calls about it in other areas of the state. Angular leaf spot is a bacterial disease caused by Xanthomonas fragariae....
*Read our latest blog post to learn about ALS symptoms and management.
https://strawberrycenterblog.com/2024/03/21/angular-leaf-spot-showing-up/
SUBSCRIBE to the Cal Poly Strawberry Center research blog @ https://strawberrycenterblog.com/subscribe/
Research Blog Post: Lygus detection numbers are up early this year
Mar 18, 2024
Lygus detections in first-year strawberry fields are up this year across all three districts. This is cause for concern being that the surrounding hills haven’t even bloomed in some areas yet.
So .... What could be driving Lygus so much earlier than expected?
Learn more in our latest research blog post:
BEWARE THE STORM THAT DELAYS THE LYGUS SWARM?
by Strawberry Center Entomology Program Leader Mohammad Amir Aghaee
https://strawberrycenterblog.com/2024/03/18/beware-the-storm-that-delays-the-lygus-swarm/
Meet Cornell's newest plant pathologist: Center alum Scott Cosseboom
Mar 8, 2024
We knew him when....
Congratulations to Strawberry Center alum Scott Cosseboom on his new position as Cornell Hudson Valley Research Laboratory (CHVRL)’s plant pathologist, where he will focus on sustainable disease management in specialty crops. Scott completed his MS degree in Plant Sciences in 2018 working at the Strawberry Center on fungicide resistance in Botrytis cinerea.
It makes us so proud to see our graduates progress in their careers!
MS Student Cooper Calvin receives APS travel award
Mar 6, 2024
Congratulations to Cooper Calvin (M.S. Candidate, Agriculture, Environmental Horticultural Sciences, Cal Poly) who received a graduate student travel award for the upcoming joint meeting of the APS Pacific Division and the 69th Conference on Soilborne Plant Pathogens. Cooper is the first Cal Poly student to receive this award. He will be participating in the graduate student competition presenting his latest findings for his research project "Systems Approach to Macrophomina Root Rot Management of California Strawberry". The joint meeting will be held on March 26-28 in Corvallis, Oregon.
Congratulations Cooper!
Results of Center fungicide trials published in PDMR
Mar 4, 2024
JUST PUBLISHED!
The results of two fungicide trials conducted in 2022 and published in Plant Disease Management Reports in 2023 are presented in our latest research blog post. Read full article @ https://strawberrycenterblog.com/2024/03/04/just-published-fungicide-performance-against-botrytis-fruit-rot/
Subscribe to the Strawberry Center Research Blog @ https://strawberrycenterblog.com/subscribe/
Center hosts congressional staffers
Feb 29, 2024
We recently hosted two members of U.S. Congressperson (California's 24th District) Salud Carbajal's team for a tour of our Center. Staffers Greg Haas (Senior District Representative) and Ruth Vasquez (Agricultural Staffer) toured our administrative offices, entomology lab, and research field.
Photo (L to R): John Lin (Center Automation Program Leader), Greg Haas, Ruth Vazquez and Gerald Holmes (Center Director).
Happy National Strawberry Day and Center's first harvest
Feb 27, 2024
HAPPY NATIONAL STRAWBERRY DAY!
Join us and the nation today in celebrating the beloved heart-shaped, juicy strawberry. This is an additionally exciting occasion for us here at the Strawberry Center as our team harvested late last week our debut set of berry-filled clam shells for the 2023/24 season. Berries will be sale soon locally at Cal Poly Meats, Vista Grande Market (Cal Poly campus) and Vons.
https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/national-strawberry-day-february-27
