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Meet us!

Dr. Barclay Poling, President
Professor Emeritus, NC State University
barclay@flavorfirst.com

For nearly four decades, I have worked in the small fruit industry as a Professor and consultant, including serving for 31 years as a Small Fruit Extension Specialist in the Department of Horticultural Science at North Carolina State University (1980-2010).  During my early career at NC State, I had the opportunity in 1982 to test the newly released Chandler variety from the UC Strawberry Breeding Program - led by pomologists Royce Bringhurst and Victor Voth. Chandler turned out to be the first of several UC strawberry varieties that helped to completely revolutionize the entire strawberry industry in Southern United States in the 1980s. 

Chandler become the dominant variety of the North Carolina strawberry industry from the mid-1980s through mid-1990s.  Camarosa, a 1992 UC release, replaced Chandler to become North Carolina’s main variety from the mid-1990s until the present.  In more recent years, Albion, a day-neutral introduced in 2006, has been gaining some popularity in North Carolina and the Southeast. After my retirement from NC State in 2010, I investigated the commercial potential of another short day UC variety ‘Merced’ at the Cunningham Research & Extension Center, Kinston, NC for two years, and found it had  excellent heat tolerance. I continue to evaluate this particular variety in Flavorfirst research trials located at Cottle Farms in Faison, NC. 

Beginning in 2015, I began my work as a consultant to Lassen Canyon Nursery, and over the last the five strawberry seasons, I have been engaged in research trials of newer strawberry varieties, as well as advanced selections coming out of the Lassen Canyon Strawberry Breeding program, led by Jim Bagdasarian.  Of this group, Ruby June has shown the best adaptation to growing conditions in Eastern NC, as well as on several commercial farms in piedmont. Ruby is exceptionally high in fruit quality, and its marketable yields compare favorably with Chandler and Camarosa.  

Beginning in 2020, I became the new Master Licensee for all of Lassen Canyon’s new varieties. In an announcement to the industry,  Elizabeth Ponce, Vice President, Lassen Canyon Nursery, Inc., wrote:  

“We are proud to be bringing Dr. Barclay Poling into our team to help us manage and promote the LCN variety line in the Eastern United States and Canada.  For those of you that have expired licenses Barclay will be contacting you to renegotiate new license agreements if wanted and verify that appropriate royalties are being charged to the end user of the plants/plugs and royalties are being remitted back to Lassen Canyon Nursery.  He may also discuss different ways to promote sales of LCN varieties among other things.  Further, since we all want to see only the healthiest LCN variety plant material offered for sale, Barclay may want to go over your clean plant programs and may suggest that changes be made to Licensee programs before licenses are renewed.”

Ruby June has been growing quite rapidly in popularity over the last few seasons, and as Lassen Canyon’s new Master Licensee, I am greatly looking forward to working with the nurseries and plug propagators in Eastern U.S. and Canada who are currently licensed, or who wish to become licensed to propagate this great new variety!