Publication Date

Spring 2026

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Environmental Studies

Advisor

Rachel O’Malley; Gregory Gilbert; Janet Broome; Will Russell

Abstract

Much of commercial agriculture has used plastic mulch since the 1950s to contain fungicides and fertilizers, control weeds, retain soil moisture, and warm the top soil to start the growing season earlier. Research suggests that small-scale strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) growers may be able to incorporate biological techniques, such as wheat straw mulch with microbial amendments, to reduce the use of single-use plastic mulch with a comparable yield. For this study, I carried out a randomized complete block comparison of five strawberry management techniques: plastic mulch (PM), straw mulch alone, and straw mulch inoculated with either arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), compost tea (CT), or both. Each treatment had 10 replicates within a 150 m2 plot at Veggielution Community Farm in San José, California. I documented differences among treatments in fruit yield and soil microbiome using 16S and ITS1 primers, as well as relationships among soil microbes and yield across all plots. Mass of fruit from plants under PM was highest, followed closely by AMF, then AMF & CT combined. Among functional groups of archaea and bacteria, anoxic photoautotrophs increased, and methanogens decreased in compost-tea-treated plots. CT also supported the highest RA of fungal symbiotrophs and the lowest RA of saprotrophs, although mycorrhizal taxa may have been underrepresented by ITS1 biomarkers.

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