Farmer Says Steam Treatment Nearly Doubles Organic Strawberry Yields

A California farmer says strawberry plots treated with steam before planting produced nearly twice as many organic berries as untreated fields and continued yielding beyond the usual season. Researchers are adapting greenhouse steam technology for open fields as a potential alternative to chemical fumigants used against soil-borne diseases and weeds, whose health risks concern environmental advocates. Making the treatment faster and practical for large farms remains a challenge, while growers are also exploring oxygen removal and disease-resistant varieties. The effort addresses a serious threat to California’s strawberry industry, which supplies about nine in 10 U.S.-grown strawberries, but steam’s broader effectiveness and viability are still being developed.