Blueberry plants spaced about three feet apart, she discovered, produced 50 percent higher yields as they grew, without lowering yields once they matured. Using trellises prevented the loss of an average of 4 to 8 percent of a blueberry crop during machine harvesting. And using weed mats — material, often synthetic, covering the ground around plants — in addition to sawdust increased yields by up to 10 percent, even when weeds were effectively controlled by the sawdust.
“It was simply because of the change the weed mat did to the soil temperature,” she said.
Dr. Strik helped organic growers maximize their yields by planting on raised beds instead of flat ground, a technique that also benefited conventional farms. She persuaded many berry producers, in Oregon and beyond, to accept her research and adopt her measures.
The federal Agriculture Research Service, part of the Agriculture Department, said in a news release in 2022 that “the berry crop industries in Oregon and around the world have all benefited from Strik’s research.”
Because of that research, the agency said, “yields during development years have increased dramatically, and organic production has increased from less than 2 percent to more than 20 percent of Oregon acreage.”
Bernadine Cornelia Strik was born in The Hague on April 29, 1962, to Gerald and Christine (Alkemade) Strik.
In 1965, the Striks moved to Tantanoola, a small town in South Australia, where her father worked in forestry. But they tired of the heat, and in 1971 the family moved to Canada and opened a nursery and landscaping business in Qualicum Beach, on Vancouver Island.
After graduating from high school, Dr. Strik earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Victoria on Vancouver Island in 1983. She completed her doctorate in horticulture at the University of Guelph in Ontario in 1987. Soon after that she took a job at Oregon State in Corvallis.
Source: New York Times
