A strawberry farm in Bicol that began producing planting materials and fruits in October last year is meeting the growing demand for seedlings of lowland strawberry growers across the country.
Currently with 14,000 mother plants, the strawberry farm in Barangay Pinit, Ocampo, Camarines Sur, has a capacity to grow 280,000 planting materials in a quarter, farm owner Leonardo Libreja said.
“The strawberry plants can produce runners, which are hardened into planting materials rapidly, if kept from bearing fruits,” he said.
The 2-hectare farm, of which only a little over half an hectare is planted with strawberry, releases a weekly average of 100 planting materials to growers in the different parts of the country, Libreja said.
Some buyers pick them up directly from the farm; others ship through a courier.
The farm sells planting materials, which are crosses of the Hawaiian variety and the Sweet Charlie, at P200 apiece, Libreja said.
The highland variety grows larger fruits and a bigger number of runners, he noted. But the lowland variety has better aroma and taste.
Highland strawberries are highly susceptible to fungus when grown in lowland, especially during the hot months, he said.
Strawberries grown in the lowlands have more resistance to fungi, which damage the plants, than their highland counterparts, Libreja said. The plants die once these microorganisms make contact.
“The insects that kill strawberry plants in the lowland are fewer than in the highland,” he said.
Libreja recreated his original parent stock into what he calls Lowland Strawberry 1 (LS 1), Lowland Strawberry 2 (LS 2) and Lowland Strawberry 3 (LS 3).
The runners are hardened up to 30 days, Libreja said. At that age, the roots are stable for planting, as well as shipment.
“They are removed from the mother plant and grown in polythene pots,” he said.
The planting materials are vacuum sealed, put in wood crates and dispatched through a courier.
The packaging technology he uses allows the planting materials to survive up to one week in sealed bags, Libreja added.
Upon receipt, the plants can bear fruits after 45 to 60 days if properly taken care of, he said.
Currently, the sole distributor of lowland-strawberry planting materials in the country, he ships most of his runners to growers in Davao, Iloilo, Cebu, Pampanga and Bulacan.
Libreja also facilitated the development of strawberry farms in Morong and Balanga in Bataan.
The one in Pampanga alone had sourced him for 2,000 pieces of planting materials, aside from his lowland-strawberry technology.
He also helped home-based growers in Santa Mesa and Pasay City, where temperature is high, raise strawberries on their rooftop.
Libreja also sells strawberry plants already bearing fruits in 6×6 polythene bags for P300. He ships them to Manila only by bus.
In the first week of December 2014, Libreja started selling fruits, which currently enjoy high demand.
“They can also produce runners from the plants with fruits to increase their seedling and fruit production,” Libreja said.
Upon planting, the runners themselves start producing their own runners at the age of 30 days, he said.
“That’s how multiplication works in the production of planting materials,” Libreja said.
“Our buyers have grown in number, since we provide them with the guidance they need on the proper growing of lowland strawberry,” Libreja said.
The strawberry plant can produce runners fast, he added. One plant can generate about 1,000 runners in a year.
A single mother plant of the lowland variety can produce an average of 20 runners in one season, Libreja said. After taking the runners from mother plants, they bear fruits.
The runners can be used as planting materials to grow strawberry fruits for the next planting season, he said.
Each runner generated by the mother plant can also produce five new runners that can be used as planting materials.
“We cut them at the age of 25 to 30 days,” Libreja said.
Runners should be grouped according to age, so that when planted they would have uniformity, he said.
The suckers, which are directly connected with the mother plant and more mature, on the other hand, produce fruits earlier than the runners, he said.
Libreja sets aside hours for clients who seek advice on lowland-strawberry technology, receiving phone calls at his home in Barangay Pinit from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., after his daily routine in the farm.
“My clients are now also selling planting materials and fruits,” he said.
Libreja was trained on the technology for lowland-strawberry farming in Maui, Hawaii, when the government sent him after winning a regional award for outstanding young farmer in 2000. He was 21 years old at the time.
He obtained a bachelor degree in Agribusiness from the Central Bicol State University of Agriculture.
Sometime this year, he will venture into strawberry-fruit processing. He will process his own produce into strawberry jam and pie.
A strawberry products-display kiosk, which has been around for about two years now along the national highway in Barangay Pinit, will showcase the processed strawberry fruits. Aside from his own produce, Libreja will buy his clients’ fruits.
Strawberries can be processed into preservatives, fruit juice, pies, ice creams, milkshakes and chocolates.
Prior to the 2-hectare farm, Libreja was into home-based strawberry growing.
At times, he controls the release of planting materials to saturate his 2-hectare farm, which is currently planted just over a hectare, with strawberry plants.
The demand for strawberry fruits is big, he said. Even the big strawberry farmers with 10 or more hectares of plantation are tapping other producers.
Dizon Farms, which is based in Taguig, had asked him to produce for them, he said. The company also asked him to encourage the farm he helped developed in Pampanga to supply them with strawberry fruits.
Seasonal by nature, Libreja is working to have his strawberry plants, which can live a little over a year by applying technology and proper nutrition, he said, bear fruits three times in a lifetime.
Libreja sells his strawberry fruits at P500 a kilo. He doesn’t peddle; the buyers come to his farm. Some prefer to pick the fruits themselves from the plants.