Berry Marketable Fruit: How to grow the highest quality strawberries in vertical farming
Strawberries are a beloved fruit, enjoyed for their sweetness, vibrant colour, and versatility in culinary applications. In Canada, producing strawberries that meet both regulatory standards and consumer preferences is crucial. Our ongoing research aims to align our strawberry production with these standards, ensuring that our Growcer technology can deliver high-quality, marketable fruit for our customers to sell and use.
The Importance of Marketable Strawberries
Canadian regulations for imported strawberries are stringent, and consumers have come to expect certain qualities in their produce. Our goal is to adopt the right technologies and methodologies to consistently produce sizeable, attractive strawberries, thereby increasing our marketable yield. By focusing on fruit quality and marketability, we aim to meet and exceed these expectations. It means that our customers will be able to produce the highest quality fruit, leading to more distribution and sales opportunities as their crops out-perform others.
Key Criteria for Marketability:
The market likes red, healthy, and decently uniform sized strawberries. To be considered marketable, our strawberries must meet several criteria:
Fully ripe, with 90-100% red coloration
Mass of 8 grams or more
Diameter of 16 millimetres or greater
At least 75% of the fruit is properly shaped and pollinated
No bruising
No mold
These parameters ensure that our strawberries are not only visually appealing but also of high quality.
Addressing Pollination Challenges
One of the main challenges we face in strawberry marketability is fruit shape, primarily influenced by pollination. Currently, we use wind pollination, which involves transporting pollen from the male parts to the female parts of the flowers. However, improper pollination can lead to misshapen fruit. There are limitations with pollination in small spaces, and addressing this has been part of, and will continue to be, part of our research.
Examples of pollination strategies include:
Natural Pollinators: Bumblebees are commonly used in the greenhouse industry. However, they come with challenges such as the need to purchase new hives every 6-8 weeks, uncertainties regarding their well-being, and the cost and logistics of shipping to remote or northern Canadian communities.
Manual Pollination: This involves using brushes to transfer pollen from flower to flower.
Innovative Methods: Recent industry research has investigated wind pollination, drone pollination, and sonification (buzz pollination using vibrations).
Our future research, starting in September 2025, will focus on refining these methods by determining the optimal number of pollination events, directionality, and speed needed to achieve perfect pollination.
Enhancing Fruit Flavor and Shelf Life
In addition to appearance, the flavour of strawberries is a crucial factor in marketability. We assess the amount of sugars and acidity in the fruit to ensure a balanced, great-tasting product. Our ongoing research aims to understand how changes in growing conditions can affect the flavor profile of our strawberries.
Shelf life is another critical aspect of our research. Harvesting strawberries at full ripeness enhances their flavour but can reduce their shelf life compared to partially unripened fruit. We are investigating methods to extend the shelf life of fully ripe strawberries, including:
Ultraviolet Light Applications: Strengthening the cellular structure of the fruit.
Warm Water Baths: Killing fungal spores that could contaminate the fruit later on.
These methods are designed to be easy to replicate and implement, ensuring that our strawberries remain fresh for longer periods.
Timeline and Future Research
Our efforts to improve strawberry quality and marketability began in 2021, using nearly the same criteria. From September 2024 to August 2025, we will delve deeper into research on fruit ripening and shelf life. Our research on improving shape and pollination will commence in September 2025. Ultimately, we see this all through the lens of productivity. We want to be able to grow great fruit, but also want the production to be financially sustainable.
Embracing Imperfection
While our focus is on producing marketable strawberries, we recognize the value of unmarketable fruit. Unless moldy, these can be used for jams, frozen fruits, and sauces. Additionally, the “ugly fruit” movement is gaining acceptance, encouraging consumers to embrace imperfect produce that still carries the same nutritional value and great taste.
Our commitment to research and innovation ensures that we can stand behind our technology as the best choice for our customers. We look forward to sharing our findings and advancements in the coming years.