Hundreds of field workers plant strawberry starters in raised beds Tuesday on a farm along West Beach Street.

Many hundreds of farm laborers are flooding Pajaro Valley fields this month for the annual strawberry planting season, transforming row after row of barren, black soil mounds into fertile beds of hope here in the nation’s most productive berry-growing region.

From now until the end of November, workers will be planting on roughly 13,000 acres in the Pajaro Valley and Salinas Valley.

“It’s a real exciting time to get those plants into the ground,” said Peggy Dillon, spokeswoman for the Watsonville-based California Strawberry Commission. “Strawberry growers have got all their hopes and expectations in the plants and soil.”

Most of the young plants are grown at a single nursery in Northern California. They’re transplanted into the soil in time for winter rains to help establish their roots. By springtime, when the harvest starts up again, the plants should be dripping with ruby-red berries.

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*Photos by Tarmo Hannula*

(Published in 11/14/07 edition)

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