This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A new textile used to cover strawberry plants more than tripled fruit yields in tunnel field tests without harming plant health. The technology could also significantly reduce water and pesticide use in strawberry fields.
The cover, known as Plant Armor, is a carefully designed fabric draped over strawberry plants. Its three-dimensional structure prevents insects from reaching the plants beneath it, while multiple layers allow sunlight, rain and airflow to reach them. Tunnel field tests found that Plant Armor increased strawberry yields by as much as 3.56 times without reducing relative humidity or access to light.
"To produce fruit, plants need sunlight," said Gabriel Olawuyi, a graduate research assistant at North Carolina State University and lead author of a paper on Plant Armor published in the journal Agriculture. "We expected that Plant Armor's seemingly opaque fabric would lead to an increase in vegetative biomass at the expense of fruiting—because reduced sunlight would trigger a 'shade-avoidance' response, making the plant divert energy toward stem and leaf growth rather than fruit production. However, we found the fabric did not impede access to light at all, and fruit production increased significantly." Plant Armor also provided a consistent warming effect over the three growing seasons, which Olawuyi said helped the covered plants reach the fruiting stage earlier than uncovered plants.
"Plants require a certain amount of accumulated heat, calculated as 'growing degree-days,' to progress through developmental stages including fruiting. Our plant cover has proven to enhance these," Olawuyi said. "The plants were in a condition whereby the warmth they need to go through each phenological stage to their production was given to them optimally, and they produced far more than the uncovered plants." By deterring insects, Plant Armor could also reduce the need for traditional pesticides in agriculture, Olawuyi said.
Plant Armor grew out of efforts to make military uniforms resistant to mosquito bites and more comfortable to wear with body armor—highlighting the importance of collaborative research, said co-author R. Michael Roe, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor at NC State. "The path to Plant Armor started with trying to make a cloth to go on a soldier's chest to make body armor more comfortable," Roe said.
"Then, through trial and error, we arrived at a product which could triple the output of strawberry farms here in North Carolina. "We couldn't have predicted that when we started. Without all these people here doing research and following the science, we wouldn't have arrived at this product." Gabriel Bamidele Olawuyi et al, Knitted 3D, Porous Textile Cover to Enhance Strawberry Fruit Production and Prevent Insect Feeding, Agriculture (2026).
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