5 - 



Sunrise and Raritan, with tender stems that break easily are desir- 

 able to facilitate picking and reduce fruit bruising. Short rows 

 are more convenient for assigning rows to pickers. 



Supervision in the field is a "must." Rules should be posted 

 where customers can read them before entering the field. Super- 

 visors must be present in the field at all times to show customers 

 how to pick, to assign them rows to pick, and to make certain that 

 all rules are observed. It is best to tally the berries and col- 

 lect the money as the customers leave the field and before they re- 

 turn to their cars. 



Some growers harvest the fields once or twice before allowing 

 the public in; others harvest first-year beds themselves and allow 

 public picking on second and third-year beds. 



Some growers allow customers to pick into any kind of container 

 and charge by weight; others insist that they pick into quart boxes 

 to reduce bruising and charge either by weight or by the box. Some 

 growers allow customers to heap the boxes as high as they can; others 

 charge extra for boxes heaped higher than specified in their rules. 



To avoid the problem of "how full is full", growers are increas- 

 ingly charging by weight. Most growers vary prices according to the 

 picking, charging the top price- where berries are large and plenti- 

 ful and a lower price where berries are smaller and less abundant. 

 In 1975, the price range in southeastern Massachusetts was SScf- to 

 65if: per quart and 40(f per pound. A quart weighs about 1-1/2 pounds. 



Growers with pick-your-own operations do very little advertis- 

 ing. Most advertise once or twice to let customers know when the 

 berries are reac^and after that, they don't have enough berries, 

 so advertising isn't necessary. Some have a mailing list of cus- 

 tomers and send cards to them when the berries are ready. 



Public picking is an idea whose time has come. Cost-conscious 

 consumers and those looking for freshness and quality have accepted 

 it. And growers having difficulty finding harvest labor, and seek- 

 ing ways to increase gross income, are finding that pick-your-own 

 strawberries is one way of doing it. 



*************** 



THE PEACH TREE REPLANT PROBLEM 



C.J. Gilgut, Extension Plant Pathologist 

 Department of Plant Pathology 



Peach growers commonly find that a new peach tree, planted 

 where a peach tree has died and been removed, grows poorly and often 



