OUR STORY

CPN's founder, Mike Fahner, was a 3rd generation Fahner farmer. His grandfather managed a dairy farm, and his father, Fred, owned a potato farm in Tulelake, CA. This is where Mike spent most of his childhood. Mike grew up attending school, playing sports, and working on the farm, where he larned the ropes form his dad at an early age. Mike went on to get his business degree at the University of Nevada, Reno, and after graduating he earned a reputable sales job at a big firm in the bay area. Nevertheless, it only took a few short months for Mike to realize that he wasn't cut out for desk work, so he left the city behind and returned home to work on the family farm, which he eventually took over.

It was around this time that strawberry nursery fields began returning to Macdoel, California, where the higher elevations provided earlier chilling, fruiting, and better fruit quality, size, and firmness. Lassen Canyon Nursery was the first to shift its nurseries from lower elevations to Macdoel, and many others followed shortly after.

Growing up less than an hour away from Macdoel, Mike observed the strawberry nursery industry closely, and he recognized the opportunities and complexities that existed within it. Nurseries demand extremely well-drained land, clean and dependable groundwater, access to quality labor, and lots of chilling hours in September. All of these elements existed in Macdoel, but not in Mike's hometown of Tule Lake, which was about 40 miles down the road. Knowing that, Mike and his wife, Debbie, made the tough decision to leave Tule Lake so they could purchase new ground in Dorris, CA (adjacent to Macdoel), where they started their very own strawberry nursery. 

CPN first employed subsurface drip irrigation at all stages of nursery production in 2003. This was a significant step forward because drip irrigation drastically reduced disease and yield loss in production fields. Disease typically spreads through splashing water, which is unavoidable with overhead irrigation, but drip irrigation allows for precise control of moisture levels in beds, which reduces disease pressure and also decreases water and nitrogen consumption by nearly 50%.

In 2008, the team introduced the first fully vented micro tunnel system. The original intent was to protect the plants from Mother Nature’s wrath, but the tunnels also aid in UV light transmission, which substantially increases soil temperature, promotes, growth, and reduces fungal spore germination. The tunnels create a mini-greenhouse around each bed, which nurtures young and developing plants that would otherwise be exposed to wind, rain, sleet, and snow.

The coupling of tunnels with drip irrigation was an enormous advancement for the industry. These techniques have reduced huge amounts of risk that used to be carried by both nursery and fruit producers. Now, foliar and soil-borne pathogens originating at the nursery are at historical lows, and CPN is extremely proud of the role they've played in that.