ASHS 2025 Conference

Anaerobic soil disinfestation (ASD) is a potential biological alternative to chemical fumigation for managing soilborne pathogens and enhancing soil health in strawberry production. The effectiveness of ASD for improving organic strawberry systems deserves more in-depth research. Building upon an ASD input rate study, this on-station experiment, conducted at Citra and Balm in Florida, assessed the impacts of two ASD treatments, including molasses (13.9 m³/ha) combined with either 9.5 (ASD1) or 14.25 Mg/ha (ASD2) of Everlizer, a heat-processed poultry manure product on strawberry yield performance. Using a split-plot design with four replications, the three-week ASD treatments and no ASD control were included in the whole plots and six strawberry cultivars (i.e., ‘Florida127’, ‘Florida Brilliance’, ‘Florida Medallion’, ‘Florida Pearl’, ‘Ember’, and ‘Encore’) were included in the subplots. A sunn hemp summer cover crop was grown, and the soil was incorporated before ASD establishment and Fall strawberry planting. At Citra, ASD1 and ASD2 significantly increased marketable fruit yield compared to the no ASD control by about 25% and 21%, respectively. However, this increase was accompanied by a modest increase in unmarketable yield, particularly under ASD1. The cultivar effect was also significant (p < 0.001), with ‘Encore’ and ‘Ember’ exhibiting the highest marketable fruit yield, while ‘Florida Brilliance’ had the highest unmarketable fruit yield. A similar trend was observed at Balm, where ‘Encore’ was the cultivar with the highest marketable yield. In addition, marketable fruit yield was increased by 7% under ASD1 and 36% under ASD2 relative to the control. On the other hand, ASD1 and ASD2 also led to higher unmarketable fruit yields by 13% and 35%, respectively, relative to the control. While the main effects of ASD treatment and strawberry cultivar were significant at both locations, no ASD by cultivar interaction was observed, indicating that cultivar performance trends were relatively stable across ASD treatments. Across locations, ASD significantly improved total fruit yield, with ASD1 promoting a higher level of marketability by lowering the amount of unmarketable fruit. These results demonstrate the application of ASD for enhancing strawberry yield in sandy soils and subtropical environments and highlight the importance of cultivar selection for optimizing organic strawberry production systems and assisting with organic transition. Further assessments of ASD inputs and implementation, fruit compositional quality, plant nutrient uptake, and soil microbial activity are expected to provide more insights into developing ASD practices for advancing sustainable strawberry production in Florida and the Southeastern region.