While approximately 80 to 90% of the sprinkler-applied water to a strawberry crop is lost through runoff, deep percolation and evaporation, all the strawberry fields in Ventura County are still irrigated with overhead sprinklers during crop establishment. Even though water use-efficiency for the in-season irrigation is on average high, the escalating regulatory pressure to achieve sustainable groundwater use in California, and therefore limiting water availability, will demand further efficiency. This study quantified differences in water use, yield, canopy coverage and root depth between drip tape (DT) and micro-sprinkler (MS) irrigation during crop establishment at a commercial field located in Oxnard, CA during the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 growing seasons. This abstract shares the results of the second season. The treatments were applied during the first 42 days after planting, after which drip tape became the only irrigation method. The irrigation scheduling of the MS treatment was defined by the irrigator (grower standard), while the DT irrigation was guided by tensiometers and field observations. All other production practices remained the same. Each treatment was replicated four times in a randomized complete block design, with an area of 0.15 acre per plot (7 beds of 175ft long). Total water use during establishment was 74.4% greater for the MS treatment compared to DT (5.8 and 3.4 acre-in, respectively). Marketable yield up to March 31 was very similar between treatments (19,268 and 19,420 lb/acre for DT and MS, respectively) and not statistically significant (p-value = 0.9517). Although not statistically significant, canopy cover MS was 9 and 11% greater at 1 month and 3 months after planting, respectively. Root depth measured at 1 month after planting was very similar and not statistically different (p-value = 0.9496).
