News & Events In Common Newsletter Fall 2009 Sharing the Wealth of Research
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Volume 8 • Number 1 • Fall 2009
Sharing the Wealth of Research
Tim and Nate Nourse with Extension Fruit Specialist Sonia Schloemann. The cutting edge is nothing new to Tim Nourse, owner and CEO of Nourse Farms – even if that term is not typically applied to growing berries. Nourse has long been at the forefront of advanced growing techniques at the 75-year-old farm headquartered in Whately, and now heads one of the largest nursery farms in the country, thanks in part to the tissue lab built there two decades ago when that technology was very new. From tissue, plants now can be reproduced virus-free. Nourse Farms has been a pioneer in plasticulture – a technique where strawberry plants are set into plastic-covered rows with built-in drip lines that provide nutrients and water. This system, more commonly seen in California and Florida, reduces the need for herbicide applications to strawberry land. Nourse Farms has helped adapt this system to more northerly growing regions, where 95 percent of berry growers still use the old “matted row” technique. Currently Nourse, along with UMass Fruit Specialist Sonia Schloemann and Professor Duane Greene of the UMass Amherst Department of Plant, Soil, and Insect Sciences, is in the third year of a study of prohexadione calcium, a growth regulator often used by apple growers, which inhibits the production of daughter plants in strawberries and produces healthier mother plants. This reduces labor costs involved in runner removal and seems to improve plant health and yield. “It seems to double the root systems of the berries,” said Nourse. Both research and fruit production have benefitted from the collaboration, notes Schloemann. “In pooling our talents,” she explains, “we bring expertise to design and carry out research trials in plots maintained by them on the farm.” Nourse Farms has also helped spread the benefits of UMass Amherst research by underwriting Berry Notes, an online periodical that reaches about 400 growers and is edited by Schloemann. Schloemann says Nourse’s contributions to university efforts help farmers throughout the region. Since many readers of Berry Notes get their plants from Nourse Farms, it’s in the farm’s interest to get research information into the hands of growers, says Tim’s son, Nate, the farm’s sales director. “We knew this could benefit everyone,” he adds. Credits:
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