The 2011 North American Strawberry Symposium was the seventh in a series of conferences held since 1980 that offered strawberry researchers, growers, and educators an opportunity to discuss advances in science and to learn about the latest innovations in strawberry production technology in North America and around the world. The 2011 Symposium was held in conjunction with the 32nd North American Strawberry Growers Association (NASGA) Annual Conference on February 8–11, 2011, at the Doubletree Hotel in Tampa, Florida. The Symposium was chaired by Drs. Kim S. Lewers and Natalia A. Peres. The committee was ecstatic with the attendance of 320 delegates from the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Israel, Turkey, Jordan, China, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Egypt, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Bangladesh, India, Argentina, and Dominican Republic, and from 24 states in the United States and 6 provinces of Canada. The international contingents at the Symposium reflect a global scope of interest in the strawberry research and industry organizations in North America.
The subject of the 2011 meeting was “Sustaining strawberry production through science.” The diverse presentations included global and North American perspectives on strawberry production, genetics, breeding, virology, germplasm enhancement, molecular biology, disease and pest management, propagation and nursery management, cultural practices, plant nutrition and water management, plant physiology, economics of production practices, postharvest fruit handling, and food safety. The Symposium consisted of one afternoon of roundtables and workshops with emphasis on water and nutrient management facilitated by B. Santos and K. D. Larson, nursery propagation and production physiology facilitated by Kim S. Lewers and Fumiomi Takeda, organic production facilitated by Pam Fisher, and molecular biology and biotechnology facilitated by Janet Slovin.
The scientific program was conducted over two days and featured five sessions of oral and poster presentations spanning global perspectives on strawberry production, emerging diseases and pests and management and control strategies, new paradigm for substrate culture, breeding and screening for fungal and bacterial disease, improvement in fruit quality through increasing nutritional content, and evaluating for abiotic stress responses and postharvest decay. The Symposium concluded with a tour of the University of Florida Gulf Coast Research and Education Center in Wimauma, Florida, where the University's primary strawberry breeding and research is conducted, and visits to several commercial strawberry production fields and packing houses in the vicinity of Plant City, FL, where 6,000-plus acres of Florida's winter strawberry industry is centered.
Many colleagues contributed to the success of this meeting. The Symposium could not have taken place without the generous financial support from the sponsors and logistics support from the University of Florida, Florida Strawberry Growers Association, and Mr. Kevin Schooley, Executive Director for NASGA. The members of the Organizing and Scientific Committees spent countless hours planning for the Symposium. An expression of gratitude is given to all reviewers who assisted in reviewing and editing manuscripts. Upon review and appropriate revision, 26 manuscripts were forwarded to the International Journal of Fruit Science for publication in its special issue. An appreciation is extended to Dr. David G. Himelrick, Editor-in-Chief, and the staff at Taylor & Francis for facilitating the publication of papers presented at the 2011 North American Strawberry Symposium.