Strawberry growers pour roughly $130 million a year, nationally, into a surprisingly stubborn problem: a part of the plant that sabotages fruit production. These fast-growing offshoots – called “runners” – stretch out from the mother plant like botanical escape artists, siphoning energy that would otherwise go into plump, market-ready berries.
University of Florida doctoral student Kaitlyn Vondracek wants to help farmers solve this costly problem. She’s digging deep into the genetics behind runner formation, hoping to dial down the plant’s impulse to sprawl.
Read more about A $130 Million Drain: UF Researcher Looks to Genetics To Rein In Wasteful Strawberry Runners.
