Growing strawberries across an urban gradientYou may be tempted to start a backyard garden if you have ever tasted farm fresh strawberries. Grocery store counterparts picked before maturity and shipped from long distances cannot compare to the sweetness of strawberries at peak ripeness. Yet growing strawberries can present some challenges, which depend in part on environmental and ecological factors. I studied strawberry productivity at small-scale farms and gardens in metropolitan Detroit over three years. I cultivated strawberries in raised beds alongside a dedicated team of undergraduates. Together, we were responsible for watering, weeding, and harvesting each week from May to September. We weighed and inspected the fruits before consuming them ourselves or sharing them with the community. Our results were published this month in Basic and Applied Ecology. We discovered that productivity was not directly influenced by urban land use. Instead, low and high temperatures negatively influenced fruit number, so that suburban sites with moderate temperatures were most successful. We also found that total fruit weight increased with higher rates of pollinator visitation but, when pathogen and pest pressures were high, visitation did not matter. Thus, managing infection and infestation is crucial for pollination services.
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