Plants, People, Science

Small Scale Eastern Strawberry Production - A Discussion with Dr. Jayesh Samtani

• American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) • Season 1 • Episode 8

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In the second part of our two-part series on strawberries, and the final episode of Season 1, Sam talks with Dr. Jayesh Samtani, an Associate Professor and Small Fruit Extension Specialist at Virginia Tech. As an extension specialist, he does a lot of work connecting with growers and other extension agents, in Virginia and numerous other states. He also runs a research program, which has covered a variety of strawberry projects, including cultivar evaluations, soil disinfestation, strawberry plant nutrition, and season extension with high tunnels.

To learn more about Dr. Samtani go to https://www.arec.vaes.vt.edu/arec/hampton-roads/people/samtani-bio.html.

To read the HortTechnology article "The Status and Future of the Strawberry Industry in the United States" go to https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTTECH04135-18.

Learn more about the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) at https://ashs.org/.
HortTechnology, HortScience and the Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science are all open-access and peer-reviewed journals, published by the American Society of Horticultural Science (ASHS). Find them at journals.ashs.org.

Consider becoming an ASHS member at https://ashs.org/page/Becomeamember!

You can also find the official webpage for Plants, People, Science at ashs.org/plantspeoplesciencepodcast, and we encourage you to send us feedback or suggestions at https://ashs.org/webinarpodcastsuggestion.

Podcast transcripts are available at https://plantspeoplescience.buzzsprout.com.

On LinkedIn find Sam Humphrey at linkedin.com/in/samson-humphrey. Curt Rom is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/curt-rom-611085134/. Lena Wilson is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lena-wilson-2531a5141/.

Thank you for listening!


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Sam Humphreys:

Welcome to Plants People Science, a podcast by the American Society for Horticultural Science where we talk about all things horticulture. In today's episode we discuss small-scale strawberry farms and how these smaller farms stay afloat along large-scale year-round strawberry production from California. Joining us today we have Dr Jayesh Santani, who is an associate professor and small fruit extension specialist at Virginia Tech. As an extension specialist, he does a lot of work connecting with growers and other extension agents in Virginia and numerous other states. He also runs a research program which has covered a variety of strawberry projects, including cultivar evaluations, soil disinfestation, strawberry plant nutrition and season extension with high tunnels. Dr Santani earned his master's degree and PhD in horticulture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He spent four years as a post-doctoral scholar exploring the strawberry industry in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California. Dr Santani, welcome, Thank you for joining us.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

Thank you, it's my pleasure.

Sam Humphreys:

So we're here to talk to you today about strawberries. We've spoken previously to Dr Gerald Holmes from California and, as you know, most strawberries are grown in California, but there's still a lot of strawberry production in other states. You are in Virginia, right, that's correct? So what does the smaller-scale strawberry production look like?

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

That's a good question when we think about the strawberry crop at least, when we did the survey in Virginia, we set up our survey so we considered small-scale strawberry growers to be within anywhere between 0.1 to 3 acres under fruit, and then medium-sized growers were considered growers that were growing strawberry fruit between 3 and 5 acres, and growers who grew strawberry fruit on greater than 5 acres were considered large-scale growers. So I'm not sure if this is in what USDA has defined, but that's kind of how we kind of set up our survey. There's a broader definition by USDA which defines small-scale, medium-scale farms as well as large-scale farms, but that's a lot larger than what we consider small, medium and large for strawberry fruit growers.

Sam Humphreys:

Interesting. Yeah, so, in addition to the smaller size of these, what would you call them? Eastern farms, non-california farms? What phrase would you use?

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

Yeah, I think using Eastern strawberry growers is, I think, a fair way of defining where we are.

Sam Humphreys:

Okay, so are there other ways that the Eastern strawberry growers are different from the Western strawberry growers?

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

I think so, based on what I have seen traveling on both sides of the country. I feel like the acreage there's a big difference in acreage, as most people who work with strawberries know. The other difference that we see is the kind of diseases that you notice. Some of them are same across both coasts but we do have a lot more humidity, which kind of breeds slightly different spectrum of diseases. And then weeds are universal, so a lot of weed pressure is seen on both the East and West coast of the US. So there's some slight differences, I would say, in terms of disease pressure. And one of the big differences that I've also seen is how growers kind of try to sell their produce Out.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

Here on the East coast we are targeting mostly local markets and direct sales to consumers. So pick your own. Strawberry is really big on the East coast. I would say it is probably there on the West coast as well, but it gets hidden. Maybe with all the larger companies and the large scale strawberry growers out there who are more into wholesaling, exporting, processing, they kind of stand out more. But maybe if you are from California or one of the other states on the West coast, you may notice that you do have some farm stands selling strawberries out there as well as pick your own operations, but it's really very prominent, I would say, on the East coast and to me that was one of the striking differences I noticed, having worked on both sides of the coast in the US. So pick your own operations, I think ties in very well with agri-tourism.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

As we know, strawberries on the East coast are planted in the fall and they would give you fruits during the summer months and that is really attractive because it's one of the first crop that breaks flower and then gives you fruit. It really is the first crop and that's exciting because people are just ready to venture out and experience the spring weather and agri-tourism really becomes attractive to people who want to spend time outdoors. And I think that's one of the larger differences I saw between the two coasts. The other difference that I feel is that the land is more intensely managed on the West coast and on the East coast because we have this agri-tourism aspect to strawberry. You know, growers tend to spread out the beds, the distance between the beds, so that way people who come to their farm have more walking space and they can actually not kind of trip over, you know, as they are trying to pick the fruit while trying to find the balance. You know, making sure their balance is steady and they don't trip is what I'm getting at.

Sam Humphreys:

Yeah, wow, so there are lots of differences, then, between the Eastern and Western. You mentioned humidity, you mentioned labor and how the strawberries are picked. I was looking at your paper from 2019 that is an overview of, let's say, the status and future of the strawberry industry in the United States, and you talk about this production system called annual hill production. Can you describe what that looks like?

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

Sure. So annual hill production basically involves most conventional growers would inject a fumigant during the process of bed making. So it's really the whole process of bed making where you would use those beds to grow the strawberries and that involves injecting a fumigant for the most part if you're a conventional grower. But there are also, you know, a lot of variations in how that bed is. You know how that chemical is used, so some growers would prefer not to use the chemical or may look at some more alternative ways to disenfest the soil.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

It also involves running the drip tape while you're making the bed and then covering the whole bed with plastic mulch which you know is really there to kind of conserve moisture so we don't lose the moisture on the bed from evaporation. And also it does a good job with controlling some weeds. It provides, you know, some weed benefits to the crop and one of the most striking advantage I would say is also protection from winter. So you get that added protection to the roots from the winter temperatures which I think again, if you think about the East Coast growers, most of them have to think about winter protection as well as frost protection for the strawberry crop. Yeah, fantastic.

Sam Humphreys:

I was really struck by the part in this paper it was just you know part of a sentence where you mentioned that annual hill production, like you just described, is used in the Eastern and Western parts of America. But I mean, we've talked about how different these environments are. How different do they look. Just, if you were out in the field looking at this annual hill production system, what would it look like between California and the Eastern side?

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

Yeah, I think even you know, if you think about California production, there might be slight variations there, but most of the production really happens along the coast and the soils are sandy and those sandy soils really allow the beds to be pulled higher and in a sense you can also create wider beds. So you get these nice white beds that are higher as well. So that allows the strawberry growers in California to maybe plant even three rows of strawberries or four rows of strawberries in that bed. And that again goes back to, you know, optimizing the usage of land and, as you can imagine, land on the the coastal Ends of actually both, I would say, east and west coast. They would be more expensive than trying to have access to land a little more inland.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

And Strawberry a lot of strawberry production really happens on the coast out on the east coast we do have sandy soils, but they're more sandy loam and a Lot of growers also inland would grow strawberries here.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

So as the soils become more heavy it becomes hard to make really, you know, high beds and the beds here that you see on the east coast are Not quite as high as what you would see on the west coast and they are not as wide as well, so that you know. Keeping that in mind and then also the humidity that we face, I think growers usually prefer to go with two rows of strawberry per bed and those might vary by varieties as well. And again, varieties is one other thing that may vary across the the two ends of the, the coast year. On the East coast, you know, we are still very fond of Chandler and older variety that was released by UC Davis, but over time, as researchers have shown the value of diversification of varieties, more and more growers are diversifying their varietal selection, especially in this. You know the last decade, where climate change and global warming are often discussed and they seem to be a threat to food and sick. You know food security.

Sam Humphreys:

So you've touched on this a little bit. The challenges that these growers are facing On the eastern side of things, what are the? What would you say are the main challenges these strawberry growers have to deal with?

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

Yeah, that's again a good question, things that I see. You know, labor. Labor is a big issue for growing strawberry. It's it's a high value crop, I would say, but also very labor intensive, and you know that's where the pick your own operations Helpful because the growers don't really have to worry about picking the fruit and that can be very labor intensive. We touched upon diseases with humidity, and you know that's another challenge, I would say, and I would say One big challenge also would be access to plant material, because in the past few years, you know, we've seen some promise with, with the new varieties, and we've often talked about using them, you know, at farm For consumption and pick your own.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

But a lot of times, you know, having access to these varieties is a challenge, having access to clean plant material is a challenge. And then also, I would say, getting the plant material in a timely manner has been a challenge, and in some years, because I know that In Virginia we think about maybe planting strawberries in spring, but one of the challenges we face is not having access to plant material During the spring, and fall seems to be the only time where we can really have access to Pluck plant material. Cut off, cut off, yeah.

Sam Humphreys:

Yeah, on top of disease and on top of you mentioned weather events, there are so many challenges.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

There are, and I would say, despite that, you know growers are willing to take up that little bit of risk because it is a fruitful fruit and you know it has its own rewards beyond challenges as well.

Sam Humphreys:

Yeah, I am really excited you brought up the access to plant material, because that's what my master's project is on. Yeah, that's fantastic. Yeah, I think that's a great challenge.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

Yeah, that's fantastic. Yeah, I think that's important yeah.

Sam Humphreys:

And so like, even though there are all of these challenges facing strawberry producers, it's it's concerning to see that there are so many challenges, but from my perspective, like being in the scientific community and seeing how many teams are just working from all angles to make it better like you are it's just heartening to me.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

Yeah, yeah, it's important work that they're doing there and you especially you, with your, with your program Thank you.

Sam Humphreys:

So one thing you said caught my eye. You mentioned you described strawberries as a high value crop, which is right. I just I don't typically think of them that way, because I the growers that I've spoken to and the things that I've heard from the scientists I work with, the margin of income can be so small after you know all of the care that it took to grow these crops and all the money you have to put into the land in order to get a strawberry. And so I'm wondering how, how do Eastern, these like small scale Eastern producers compete with the bigger market of the California strawberries?

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

I think the advantage of being on the East Coast is, you know, we are closer to the most densely populated part of the US, so we have access to the consumer base. What we don't have access to on the East Coast is year round supply of strawberry production, and that might change over time with, you know, control environment agriculture picking up, and I know there are challenges. Currently we're trying to grow strawberries under control environment agriculture, but I believe NC State is doing some research along those lines as well, and you know Virginia Tech has some effort going there as well, and maybe a few other universities are also focusing on control environment agriculture and the future may be bright there with, you know, end of production for strawberry and just thinking about how, if strawberries could be grown year round and, just you know, we don't have to worry about the fruit traveling all the way from the West Coast or internationally from Mexico to provide fruit during the off season to make that fruit available year round, I think that's really exciting. But currently, you know, what the growers have been taking advantage of is pick your own operations and when they bring, when they bring consumers to their farm, they are, you know, putting other attractive things at the farm like play area. They have some chickens out there, some pigs out there for kids to be excited about farm animals.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

And beyond excitement, there's an educational component to it. Wekids and families will learn about agriculture and the importance of agriculture in term, you know, to the human society really to provide food, to protect environment, to enhance environment. So all those aspects I think are very educational and very important. So I would say East Coast growers have been quite proactive in promoting that aspect as well. They also have farm stands where if people don't have time to pick strawberries or they, you know, the weather is too hot for them or too wet for them to go out in the field they could potentially pick up fruit from the farm stand and that's attractive as well. I think it's really I really enjoy, you know, driving by those roads where you can see farm stands and you see fresh fruit out there. You see jars of jams and jellies out there for sale. I think that's very exciting to me in the context of, you know, local food systems.

Sam Humphreys:

That's also. I haven't thought about it in that way before. That it's almost community building. You know, if you go to a farm stand once a week and you see the same people there, or you go to a farmers market and you sort of pull that into your internal list of like local communities, I've never thought of how these small farmers and these like pick your own places can play a role in community like that. That's wonderful.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

Yeah, I think you know that is, I think, the most exciting part also to me and like you, I wasn't really paying that much attention early on, but over time you kind of realize how important and valuable it is to the community. Because you think about, you know, not having that strawberry farm that you're used to going year after year and people start missing that then if they don't see the farm that they were used to going year after year and just having access to that fresh local fruit, that's a lot more flavorful, lot more colorful. It's just a different experience that you know shipping something across the country is not going to substitute that access to fresh fruits.

Sam Humphreys:

Yeah, do you think I mean I, this is beautiful little group of farmers that have these small farms and produce fruits for as much of the years they can, but, like you said, it's not all year round, right? Do you think that'll ever change?

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

It could. You know, with weather changes we are already seeing this year we are picking longer than normal. We've been picking for about nine or ten weeks and that's not very usual, I would say it doesn't happen every year. So we don't know what weather patterns are going to look like in the future. We don't know what the genetics might allow us to do and we don't know what technologies might come into play that might alter how we grow this fruit. So I would say, you know, the human, with the human mind and the human mindset, I would say nothing is impossible, but we just don't know. It looks like an exciting avenue to pursue, where fruit could be available all summer long. The logistics will have to come into play, including, you know, we touched upon access to plant material, and that could be again a defining factor as well.

Sam Humphreys:

Absolutely.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

In terms of making fruit available year round.

Sam Humphreys:

Absolutely yeah, it's so challenging and exciting.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

Yeah, it makes things exciting for researchers and extension specialists.

Sam Humphreys:

Absolutely, and so on that exciting note, one thing that I find interesting, and a lot of my peers do as well, is the idea of automation and robotics I work with I'm friends with people in my department who are maybe working with crops where there's more automation. I don't see that much automation and robotics in strawberry production right now, and I'm curious what you think about robotics, because you mentioned it in your 2019 review paper. Do you think you could talk about what sorts of technologies you think would help strawberry growers?

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

I think they're.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

You know, like you touched upon robotics and most of what I've seen is for the large scale strawberry growers in California, Florida and, as we discussed, the bed set up is a little different there. Maybe the genetic makeup of varieties would be different and that plays a role on how easily robots can detect fruits on the plant. You know where we are. We are surrounded with small scale growers around us on the east coast and I really think that there's potential to develop technology for small scale growers, where maybe you don't need six robotic arms working at the same time, as we saw through demonstrations at the conferences in Florida and California, but we need maybe only one or two robotic arms that would do the same thing, which would also reduce the cost of owning that machine, because you start talking about, you know, $10,000, $15,000 equipment, that that's quite expensive for our growers here on the east coast and I think having access to cheap technology and something that will work well is what would attract adoption of that technology. I would say to do two growers on the east coast.

Sam Humphreys:

Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting that Florida has been working on that point. I wouldn't have expected Florida to be working on automation in that way, because they also have a pretty small strawberry production system, right.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

They do. I mean, it's smaller than California, but if you think about you know the rest of the states. They would still be considered a large player relative to those of us on South Atlantic, mid-atlantic part of the US.

Sam Humphreys:

Yeah off the top of your head. Where would you? What other states in addition to California are the main strawberry producers?

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

I would say Florida, and then a lot of processing of strawberry happens also in Oregon, some in Washington and then North Carolina, I would say is really even a big player. You know, as we talk about agri-tourism farms and New York, I would say, has quite a bit of strawberry production as well.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

Yeah, so your location is perfect then, Our location, virginia, is perfect in the sense it's right in the middle of the country. So I think you know having access to consumer base is relatively easier here. But we are all connected. I would say you know North Carolina, virginia, new Jersey, so we I think we kind of pick up things from each other, even Georgia.

Sam Humphreys:

That's wonderful. Yeah, that's many states all connected to each other.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

Yeah, yeah, south Carolina as well, yeah.

Sam Humphreys:

Interesting. So your goal is an extension, correct Extension and research.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

That's correct.

Sam Humphreys:

So specifically for small fruits, extension and research for small fruits. So what does your work typically look like?

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

Well, the exciting part is, every day is different, so that's one good thing about this job. You know, there are days where we are out in the field all day long, there are days where we are a few hours in the field, few hours inside, and there are also days where we are inside all day long. There are days where we travel, there are days where we are on the flight, there are days where we are in the car, but a lot of it really is pertaining to understanding the needs of the growers and seeing how you can help, and it really starts from grounds up talking to growers and understanding what they need and then going back to your office to see what you can do in your capacity to help them, and then reach out maybe to other specialists to see if we can collaborate together to work on addressing that need. So it involves it's a long process, because you start by thinking and then putting things on paper, which and it involves grant writing, so you have to raise the funds to do the research. Then, from there on, it involves actually implementing the research and it doesn't get implemented just like that.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

You then hire the right people to do the job, including graduate students, undergraduate students, maybe post-doctoral fellows, and once you have the right team, then you hope that the year goes well out in the field or in the greenhouse. The execution goes smoothly, and then you go into analysis, writing, and the writing itself goes through several drafts, as you know. So, yeah, it's a long process, then publishing the work and then simplifying the work to a grower acceptable language, and then that involves working on newsletter articles, maybe writing blogs. I don't do as much blogging, but I know some of my colleagues do. It involves maybe making some videos, and we've all learned that during COVID times. So it's, I think, a lot of variation in the job. That is, I think, exciting in itself. So when you disseminate the information, you have to go to where the growers are, and that often involves travel and then also presenting the work at scientific conferences. So all of that, I think, is really exciting to me. Yeah.

Sam Humphreys:

I've got to say it sounds wonderful Just being able to write and travel and see strawberries and talk to growers. That sounds fantastic. But all of those different things you do, it sounds really challenging and I'm wondering how you prepared for that Before you came into this role. How did you prepare to be this amazing strawberry extension researcher?

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

I would say my mentors had a role to play, as we don't just turn out ready like that, but going through the graduate programs was very helpful. And I would say everything that I did in my graduate school was very helpful, including I don't have a teaching appointment now. I don't teach in classroom, but I was a teaching assistant when I was in graduate school and that was very helpful in terms of how I should be speaking to an audience, how to pace out my words as I'm talking so it can be understood by a large set of audiences and a large, diverse set of audiences. I would say that was helpful. Demonstration when you demonstrate to the students, you kind of have to do that also to your stakeholders.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

And extension and my PhD advisor had an extension appointment as well. So that was very helpful because I had the opportunity to develop a webpage, write some newsletter articles from my PhD research and, I would say, the small fruit experience. I really gained that during my postdoctoral years at UC Davis. My advisor there is an extension and research specialist based off campus, so that was, I think, a really good preparation for me to take up this position, which is also off campus.

Sam Humphreys:

And I can see it all culminates in this beautiful paper that you wrote about the whole industry. It's so in depth. I'm really in awe of how you pulled all this information together into one wonderful, concise paper.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

Thank you. I would say also thanks to my collaborators who helped me with writing. We had the right team and all the stars aligned to get that written, so I'm really glad that it's proving to be a good publication for people who've never been to the other parts of the state or who are just about entering the world of strawberry research or entering fresh into the strawberry industry.

Sam Humphreys:

Yeah, I mean I found it very helpful in my master's career. Maybe it's not a career yet I've been in my master's program for a year and a half but when I first started, my PI does a lot of plant physiology and a lot of technology work, but doesn't have this super in depth background in strawberry and the strawberry industry, and so by leaning on papers like this, it's been so helpful to really contextualize the importance of the work that me and my colleagues are doing. So thank you from the student's perspective.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

Oh, you're welcome yeah. I'm glad you're finding it to be useful.

Sam Humphreys:

So I am curious you mentioned how important your collaborators were for this paper and, as an extension person who talks to so many people and connects across your own state and across the country to answer a lot of questions, what has communication and building a scientific community? What has that looked like for you?

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

I would say it has been a process that's built over time. It's taken time. I say that because I did my undergraduate research in the Midwest and it had nothing to do with strawberries or any other berry. I really started working with berries and I stuck onto it. When I did my postdoctoral research in California and one of the advice I got from my mentor there was when you move. Because when I moved and I got the position on the East Coast he encouraged me to build some regional collaborators and that took a little bit of time because I was trying to see who the regional collaborators were and some had retired, they were gone. So it was kind of this first few years a little challenging and trying to really develop that relationship.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

But I think over time it has occurred naturally and I'm glad that has been the case, like a natural collaboration versus forced collaboration, because forced collaborations oftentimes don't last long. But if something happens organically over time I think you kind of enjoy it a little more and it seems to bring in a lot more purpose. So I would say over time I've collaborated with the researchers at NC State, at USDA facilities in Belsville, maryland. I've then had some new researchers who approached me saying they are going to start a berry program or they were hired into a berry specialist or a pathology position. So I've then worked with researchers at University of Maryland and then delivered State University, and I've worked with researchers at Virginia State University and now, with the outreach, really the umbrella is even wider. So I worked with folks at Arkansas, auburn, and as you know, the small fruit world is small, so we end up kind of working with each other, depending on the opportunity and the project.

Sam Humphreys:

Wow, that must be so informative too, because if you asked me how Arkansas grows strawberries differently, I wouldn't have any idea. But you have collaborators now or you have people you've connected with that could tell you. And that's really beautiful that you have formed this multi-state community.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

Yeah, and I think almost all state specialists are doing that. I would say it's just, I think, the whole beauty of being placed in this position that gives you access to connecting with people across states and you can learn a lot and you can share a lot and you can grow together.

Sam Humphreys:

When you first began in Virginia, you found that there was no association of strawberry growers. Correct, that's right. Why do you think there hadn't been one before?

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

I would say Virginia has a fairly small set of growers and they used to rely for a big part with the information that North Carolina State University used to generate, and that was the case for many, many years. But I think when the position for me was created, it was really rooted for by the strawberry growers, and when they learned that they're finally going to get a strawberry specialist and their own strawberry specialist, I think they were really excited and they thought it was a good time to form an association, because now they had someone associated with the university who could offer them some advice. And that's kind of how that happened is. You know, I was new to Virginia, but there were a few growers here who told me that they would really like to form an association and I thought that would also work well for my position. So we got together and we have Gail Milt here working for VDAC's marketing and she was always in touch with strawberry growers and a couple of us then decided that maybe we should get together and legally form an association, and that's kind of what we did.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

But then when you form an association, you need to provide some services to the members of the association.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

So then we had to brainstorm ideas on how we could do that, and one thing that we did was, you know, created a newsletter, and Gail Milt here she still continues to serve as an editor for that newsletter and that, I think, is very advantageous and appreciative to, you know, by the growers of the association.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

We also then used to do some post-plant field walks, but that has kind of slowed down after COVID and we've also lost our long-term pathologist and until the new pathologist kind of builds up to that level, I think it may be another few years to kind of get that going if the growers really want that again. The post-plant field walks and then the pre-plant meetings is something we have done as part of the initiative of the Virginia Strawberry Association Growers. So it started off, I think, with a group of eight members and the next day it became 13 and slowly increased and I think right now we are close to 40 some members, but they're not just from Virginia, they come from other states as well. So we've seen that over time that we are finding more and more growers from other states and to reflect our attendance we are now in the process of changing the name to Mid-Atlantic Strawberry Growers Association.

Sam Humphreys:

That's amazing. What is the current name?

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

Virginia Strawberry Growers Association.

Sam Humphreys:

So does this group, does this association make it easier for you to figure out what grants to apply for and what to research next?

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

I think, yes, I occasionally will take a opportunity of the larger meetings to ask them what they think are their needs so we can kind of gear our research towards that area. So I would say it's not that easy, also because we are not trained to do everything or address all needs, but we do our best to see what is it that we can do. And, as I said before, then, if some of those things, you really need to find right collaborators to address those and then be able to write grants to do the research. Because you know, coming from small states, we don't really have a lot of industry backup in terms of support, so we almost have to rely on state and federal level funding to do the work.

Sam Humphreys:

That's interesting, yeah, so how do you form these collaborations across states? What does that look like for you?

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

I think it's. I'll give you an example, so, with one of the projects that we were interested in doing was variety evaluations, and then we were also interested then to see if certain varieties have higher levels of vitamin C. So that involved maybe, you know, reaching out to someone who has like post harvest background or who's done some work in that area. So we reached out to my colleague at Virginia State University who was also starting and relatively new at that time. So we worked out a grant together where we could work together on that, where I would do the field data collection and then she would do, you know, the nutrient determination within those varieties. And that's kind of how you. That was in state. But then, for an out of state example, you know we had some.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

We had a breeder, dr Fernandez, at NC State, and she was interested in evaluating advanced germplasm for the varieties that she was about to release. And then, you know, I told her I would be interested in evaluating those in Virginia. I don't know if she reached out to me, I can't remember, it's been a few years now, but yeah, so it worked out well because you know it allowed me to evaluate that advanced germplasm in Virginia and it allowed her maybe to get some additional data that she could use and understand the importance of that variety. So we worked collaboratively on projects like that. So I worked with Gina, as well as with Dr Leeuwers Kim Leeuwers at USDA, bellsville, maryland. I think it's just been like organic and many years I think. After I came into this position in 2013 I think, and then 2016 or 2017 I got a call from you know faculty in Blacksburg who really wanted to start focusing on berries and she's, you know, in the department of food science and technology and you know she was.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

She's interested in looking at aroma profiles of berries and maybe trying to focus on non-alcoholic beverages for the berry industry. So she's now pursuing that and we are starting to write grants together to make, you know, the whole project and proposal look more attractive.

Sam Humphreys:

That's fantastic.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

Yeah.

Sam Humphreys:

I was just curious because if the huge, large scale strawberry growers in California wanted to get something done, it would maybe be easy to justify in like a grant application or something, and so for these smaller scale growers I was wondering if it was, you know, difficult to find collaboration. But it sounds like, especially with this association you have, it sounds like you've built a really strong group that has that has sway and is exciting for other researchers to try to work on collaborations with you. So that's really wonderful to hear.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

Yes, yes, it's taken time, but it has happened.

Sam Humphreys:

What are you excited about for the future?

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

That's a good question. I think people are now recognizing the value of agriculture more than ever and I'm really excited about this new generation of kids who are expressing interest that they would like to work in agriculture or with agricultural crops and adopting you know, either their technology skills into agriculture or their food technology and food science skills into agriculture, or bringing in, you know, the environmental perspective into agriculture.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

So I think the youth is what I'm most excited about. I'm excited about the technological adaptations that might happen because of all the interest and that would be of value, I think, to the growers and also the prospect of you know growing food differently. So control environment is one avenue there. But you know also growing soilless, growing food crops in a soilless mix, you know, using maybe even aeroponics or hydroponics and that. So that's again, you know, I think, part of technology adoption and that to me is exciting. I'm glad that people are showing interest now on how their food is grown overall. So there are questions that they ask the growers back about you know how something is grown and I think that's fair to ask. But also it's good for the growers to know you know what their consumers want so they can adapt as well.

Sam Humphreys:

Yeah, well that's comforting to have read your work and to see how much you know and how many people you know within the strawberry community and to hear that there are so many reasons to be hopeful. That's really wonderful. Thank you so much for talking with me today. I've really enjoyed this.

Dr. Jayesh Samtani:

You're welcome.

Sam Humphreys:

Thank you. What a fantastic episode to wrap up season one of plants, people, science. To read more about the strawberry industry, please check out a related paper titled the status and future of the strawberry industry in the United States, which is published by Hort Technology, which is one of the open source peer-reviewed journals published by the American Society for Horticultural Science. Links to these articles will be provided in the show notes. If you want to learn more about Dr Santani, you can see his bio on the Virginia Tech website or you can find him featured in Fruit Grower's News 40 under 40 of 2019. And if you'd like more information about the American Society for Horticultural Science in general, you can go to ASHSorg. Before we finish this episode, let's have a quick note from Lara to wrap up season one.

Lara Brindisi:

Hello everyone. As I mentioned in the last episode, I will be stepping down as the co-host of this podcast in pursuit of a new and exciting postdoc position. Thanks again for being such a great audience. It was such a joy to help shape the first season of plants people, science.

Sam Humphreys:

We're so proud to see Lara moving forward in her work. Next season I'll continue co-hosting, this time alongside someone who's been a member of ASHS for over 40 years, dr Kurt Rahm, thank you for joining us this season. We hope to see you again for season two.

Lara Brindisi:

Thanks. Ashs podcasts are made possible by member dues and volunteerism. Please go to ASHSorg to learn more. If you are not already a member of ASHS, we invite you to join us. Ashs is a not-for-profit and your donations are tax deductible. This episode was hosted by Sam Humphrey and Lara Brindisi. Special thanks to our audio engineer Alex Fraser, our research team Lena Wilson and Andrew Cometz, our ASHS support team Sarah Powell and Sally Murphy and our musician John Clark.