At the McDonough Market Garden, one of about 40
pick-your-own strawberry patches in Georgia, the business has
been brisk and the berries plentiful.

Rain at the right time brought healthy plants and big
berries. Dry, sunny weather brought pickers.

“This is the best year we’ve ever had,” said William
Oelgeschlager, who runs the four-year-old roadside market with
his son-in-law William Mailand on Georgia Highway 20 between
McDonough and Hampton, Ga.

It’s Berry Picking Time

The berries were ready for picking in mid-April. They
expect the season to last through the first week of June.

On a midweek afternoon in late April, the bountiful
berries and beautiful weather brought families, groups of
teenagers and neighbors out to pick berries and eat homemade ice
cream, also for sale at the market.

The plants were so loaded with fruit it took only 10
minutes to fill a gallon bucket.

“Since the weather is better, we’ve had more business,”
Oelgeschlager said.

He isn’t the only grower benefitting.

Good Season Statewide

“We have a wonderful strawberry crop this year,” said
Gerard Krewer, an Extension Service horticulturist with the
University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences.

“In south Georgia, the crop is at its peak now. But
there are still plenty of berries,” Krewer said. “In the
mountains, the crop is just coming in.”

This spring’s cool, dry weather is perfect for growing
strawberries.

“The cool allows more flowers to form, which results in
a larger crop,” Krewer said. “Strawberries are quite odd in that
most of the flower buds in the Georgia crop are formed in the
spring of the year that production occurs. Up north, most of the
flower buds are formed the previous fall and winter.”

Most Georgia growers use plasticulture, planting the
plants in a mounded row of soil covered with plastic. This
method keeps moisture in the soil, soil off the berries and weeds
out of the plants.

“We bring some flower buds in from Canada on the mother
plants. Other flower buds are formed on side branches that
develop in Georgia,” Krewer explained. “If the weather is cool
enough, they will form flowers that will come out and continue
to form more and more berries. The cool, dry spring we had is
ideal.”

Pick-Your-Own Popular

Almost all of the Georgia strawberry crop is grown on
pick-your-own farms and the number of Georgia acres devoted to
pick-your-own strawberry farms has increased dramatically since
1985.

In 1998, Georgia strawberry farms generated $1.5 million
in sales, with an economic impact of $4.5 million.

“Pick-your-own is very dependent on a constant flow of
customers,” Krewer said. “They are also dependent on the
weather.”

If the McDonough
Market Garden is any indication,
Georgia
farmers have plenty of both this year.

To find a fresh produce market or pick-your-own
strawberry patch near you, visit the Georgia Farm Bureau Web
site
at http://www.gfb.org and look
under Farm Markets. The site
provides a map, directions, telephone numbers and a list of
crops
the market offers.