What Enterprise is Sustainable for Me?

Strawberry

To evaluate how well this enterprise aligns with your farm's agronomic, marketing, financial and management resources, answer these five questions. Then, calculate your score.

Using a scale from 0 to 100, scores indicate your farm's likely success with an enterprise.

The icons link to resources you can use to answer these questions.

QUESTIONS
HELP ME ANSWER THIS
1. Site requirements for producing strawberries include good soil drainage and air drainage. The location should have no plant residues, stones, sticks or perennial weed pressure, and it shouldn’t have recently grown strawberries, sod or crops susceptible to Verticillium wilt or that may leave herbicide residues. The soil pH level should range from 6.0 to 7.0. Do you have a suitable site?

Yes
No


2. Is your operation willing to invest in irrigation to provide consistent moisture to strawberry plants that have shallow root systems, and in areas prone to frost risk and warm temperatures, are you willing to use sprinkler irrigation as a tool to protect strawberries from frost and offer evaporative cooling benefits?

Yes
No


3. Strawberry production relies on hand labor for activities such as renovating strawberry beds, applying mulch, removing mulch from rows, pulling blossoms and runners from newly planted strawberry plants, controlling weeds and picking berries. Do you have access to sufficient hand labor for activities such as these?

Yes
No


4. Strawberries tend to have a short post-harvest life. Do you have ready access to a market that can quickly make use of strawberries after harvest?

Yes
No


5. Are you willing to identify and choose strawberry cultivars suited to your operation’s local growing conditions?

Yes
No


Your ResultsX
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Respond to the questions for an enterprise. Each question touches on a key factor that affects an enterprise's sustainability on your farm.
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Icons to the side of questions direct to other decision tools that share detailed information about a question's topic.
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After completing all questions for an enterprise, calculate your score. A pop-up page will share your results. Scores closer to 100 suggest the enterprise would align well with your farm. Scores closer to 0 suggest the enterprise would not fit as well, based on your responses to the questions.