世界顶级草莓的秘密

By Dan Charles

May is the month for strawberries and for strawberry festivals in every corner of the country. But 80% of Americas strawberries come from one state， California. Growers there typically harvest 10 times more berries from a single acre than farmers in， say， New York or Michigan. Its a miracle of agricultural technology. But that technology is not as universally loved as the fruit.

That California strawberry you just bought at the supermarket probably came from a tiny sliver of plant tissue that somebody cut from the tip of a growing strawberry stem five years ago. That little sliver went into a little glass 1）petri dish and grew into a new plant， guaranteed free of disease. Then it sent out dozens， maybe a hundred， so-called runners—little daughter plants.

五月是草莓之月，在全国各地到处都有草莓节。不过，美国80%的草莓都来自加利福尼亚州。一般来说，那里的果农从每英亩（约6.07亩）收获的产量比纽约州或密歇根州的果农多十倍。这是农业科技带来的奇迹，但带来这种成果的技术并不像草莓那样广受欢迎。

你刚刚在超市买的加州草莓的源头是一点点银色的植物组织，那可能是五年前从一枝正在生长的草莓植株茎尖上剪下的。那一小点银色的植物组织会被放在小玻璃培养皿里，继而长成一棵绝对不会有病虫害的新植物。接下来，它变成了数十棵，甚至是数百棵草莓纤匐枝，也就是小棵的后代植物。

Daren Gee （Strawberry Grower）： Those runners are basically clones of the mother. And then they plant those and then they take the daughters off of that one， and do it again and again and again.

This takes years. The plants are multiplied first in carefully-controlled greenhouses， then in fields in the heat of Californias Central Valley. And finally in fields along the California-Oregon border， up in the mountains. Its cold up there， which is the key. Somehow the cold gets these plants primed for maximum production.

Daren： And then theyll dig up these mother plants and all of the daughters， and theyll throw the mothers away. And then theyll send me the daughters.

Its those daughters that produce Californias monster strawberry crop. And all along this chain of clones， from petri dish to final harvest， people are working obsessively， fanatically， to protect these plants from disease because Californias strawberry growers dont want to take any risk that their crop will fail. They have too much money invested， especially in expensive land in prime growing areas along the coast.

So every year， a month before planting， 2）fumigation machines move slowly across the fields injecting chemicals into the soil and sealing in the fumes with sheets of plastic. The chemicals kill weeds， insects， and 3）fungi.

Now， organic strawberry growers dont fumigate； they stay a step ahead of diseases by moving from field to field. But even organic growers buy their strawberry plants from nurseries that do use fumigation.

达林·吉（果农）：这些草莓纤匐枝基本上就是母枝的克隆后代。然后，他们种下这些草莓纤匐枝，再从它们的枝上剪下新的草莓纤匐枝，就这样一次又一次地重复这个过程。

整个过程要花好几年的时间。这些植物先是在被严格监控的温室里繁殖，然后被植于加州中部炎热的山谷地里。最终会移栽到加州和俄勒冈州交界处山上的地里。山上很冷，而这一点正是关键。不知怎地，寒冷的天气能让草莓达到最高产量。

达林：然后，他们会挖起所有的母枝和纤匐枝，把母枝全部扔掉，把纤匐枝给我。

我眼前这些就是可以生长出加州巨型草莓的纤匐枝。而从培养皿到最后的收获，在这一系列克隆技术生产链条的每个步骤中，人们不管不顾，发了疯似地埋头保护草莓不受病虫的侵害。加州的果农在这上面，特别是在沿着海岸最好的昂贵农田上投入了大量的资金，因此不愿意冒这个险。

于是，每年在草莓种下的前一个月，熏烟消毒机就在地里缓慢地移动，把化学剂喷入土壤中，再用塑料薄膜把烟罩在里面。这些化学剂可以除杂草、昆虫和真菌。

当然，有机果农是不会进行烟熏杀虫的，他们用从一块地移到下一块地的方法来预防病虫害。但是，即使是有机果农也从那些使用烟熏方法杀虫的草莓苗圃买草莓的植株。

This technology has done wonders for strawberry production， but its under attack and it may have to change. The most powerful fumigant， 4）methyl bromide， is getting phased out gradually because it can eat away at Earths ozone layer.

Were looking at some of those possible alternatives in a research plot near Watsonville， center of strawberry production.

Dan Legard （California Strawberry Commission）： As you look at the field， it looks like a regular strawberry field. You dont see any differences.

The same raised beds covered with black plastic and strawberry plants poking out of holes in the plastic. But those plants arent actually rooted in soil at all. Theyre growing in a foot-wide trough thats lined with fabric and filled with 5）peat—or something called coconut 6）coir.

Dan： So heres the coconut coir； its the fibers from the outside of a coconut. And its wet and it has good water-holding capacity， and it 7）mimics soil.

But its not soil， which is the point. There arent any scary fungi in there， so no need for fumigants to drive them away. There are other approaches， too. Using the heat of the sun to 8）sterilize the soil or ground-up seeds of 9）canola plants. Those seeds release a chemical that suppresses the harmful fungi for a while.

But commercial strawberry growers are skeptical about all these methods. The ones that work reliably， like growing plants in coconut coir， are really expensive. And the ones that are cheap sometimes fail. Dan： It may work four out of five times and that looks great to a researcher， but that means 20% of the growers fail. And no growers is going to take that 20% risk when hes investing a million dollars.

这种草莓种植技术为草莓的产量带来了不可思议的成果，但如今，这种方法受到了抨击，也许将不得不发生变化。最有效的烟熏剂是溴化甲烷，它因为造成地球的臭氧层变薄，正在慢慢退出人们的视野。

沃森维尔是加州草莓生产的中心，我们正在附近的一块研究试验地里察看一些其他的种植方式。

丹·莱加德（加州草莓委员会）：你看看这块地，它表面上与其他草莓地一样。你不会看出什么异样。

同样是隆起的苗床，上面罩着黑色的薄膜，草莓植株戳破薄膜，钻了出来。但这些植株根本就不是长在土里。它们是长在一英尺宽的槽里，槽里填满了泥炭和纤维，或者说一些叫椰壳粗纤维的东西。

丹：这些是椰壳粗纤维，是椰子壳外面的那层纤维。这些东西潮湿，保水能力强，与土壤相仿。但关键是，它不是土壤。因此，里面没有那些让人生畏的真菌，不需要使用烟熏剂。当然，还有其他方法。比如说用太阳的高温对土壤或者碾碎的油菜籽进行消毒，这些油菜籽会释放一种化学物，可在一段时间里抑制有害真菌的生长。

但商业果农对这些方法都抱怀疑态度。一些可靠的方法非常昂贵，如在椰子壳纤维里种植；而比较便宜的办法却不时会失败。丹：这些方法在五次的实验中可能会有四次成功，这对于研究者来说已经很不错了，但那意味着有20%的果农会失败。如果果农为此投入了一百万美元，那就不会有人愿意冒这20%的险。

So for now， most of Californias strawberry growers are sticking with the chemicals. Its been a key to their success—producing more strawberries for a lower cost than anywhere else in the world.

因此就目前来讲，加利福尼亚州的大部分果农继续采取用化学剂消毒的办法。因为老方法是他们一直以来取得成功的关键，他们可以借此以比世界上其他任何一个地方都低得多的成本，得到更大的草莓产出。

翻译：旭文