Success Stories

Saskatchewan strawberry plants in demand
Irrigation Crop Diversification Corporation

Saskatchewan is known for its hot summers and bitterly cold winters. The extremes of our climate may not be attractive to all, but they may be contributing factors to the creation of high-yeilding strawberry plants that are attracting attention from fruit growers as far away as Florida.

The same “Northern Vigor” phenomenon that was discovered in Saskatchewan-grown seed potatoes several years ago has been found in Saskatchewan-raised strawberry crowns. Northern Vigor seed potatoes have shown more vigor due to delayed senescence (i.e. a longer period of active growth). This results in more even crop development, higher yields and superior grades.

“We’ve identified Northern Vigor in strawberry crowns in a similar way to seed potatoes,” said Dr. Jazeem Wahab, Horticultural Crops Agronomist at the Canada Saskatchewan Irrigation Diversification Centre (CSIDC), in a 2007 interview. “Northern Vigor allows us to produce a superior product here in the higher latitudes.”

Like the seed potatoes, the strawberry crowns produced higher yields than crowns from other provinces in Florida- based testing, raising the potential of a $5 million to $10-million-per-year strawberry nursery plant industry in Saskatchewan. This testing was made possible thanks to funding from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Advancing Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Food Saskatchewan (ACAAFS) program, which is administered by the Agriculture Council of Saskatchewan (ACS).

The Florida testing, which was conducted over a three-year period, not only showed that Saskatchewan crowns outperformed traditional crown supplies from Quebec, Nova Scotia and Ontario, but that the crowns produced higher early-season yields. It is anticipated the early-season yields will create greater demand from Florida strawberry growers and allow Saskatchewan strawberry crown producers to command a higher premium than their competition,  

From all indications, US growers are very interested in Saskatchewan sourced plants. “It diversifies their source of supply,” Wahab said in 2007, of the Florida growers. “It’s in the industry’s best interest to spread that around so their sources of supply are diversified.”

With a clear demand for the product, the challenge for the research team, which included several producers and individuals from the University of Saskatchewan and the Canada-Saskatchewan Irrigation Crop Diversification Centre, is to determine if strawberry crowns could be produced economically in Saskatchewan. While the researchers believe that strawberry crowns can be produced commercially in the province, more development on production techniques and investigation into production economics and market intelligence is required before fruit producers can take full advantage of this opportunity.

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