Help! Strawberry disease?

[tgplp]

Please help me identify this disease. I bought some healthy new transplants today; would it be a bad idea to plant the healthy plants with the diseased?How can I treat this?


Thanks!
Taryn

[cornbreadlouie]

My strawberries were looking similar and there was a bunch of ants on them. I dug them up and planted them on little mounds to give the leaves a little more distance from the ground and put one of those "Grants Kills Ants" traps near them. So far so good. A bunch of the leaves were turning red like that and a lot of the flowers were all chewed up.

I blame the ants and the fact they got beat up by weather all winter, but if somebody knows more than me, they should definitely chime in.

[DogsandDirt]

Probably one of several fungal diseases, apparently pretty common with strawberries. Mine look similar but they keep producing. I was going to spray and drench with Actinovate to see if it helps after this next band of rain moves through. This link was helpful:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/c...ubs/ag-386.pdf

This one was also helpful:

http://ohioline.osu.edu/b926/pdf/b926-ch5.pdf

I also noticed your soil looks wet and there's no mulch. Strawberries hate wet feet and love mulch. Apparently straw mulch is good for preventing leather fruit rot but I think it would help prevent the fungal leaf diseases as well. I use pine straw much since oat straw mulch is only available here from Halloween to Thanksgiving. Removing the dead leaves which can harbor the spores should help, too.

Good luck!

[tgplp]

Originally Posted by DogsandDirt

Probably one of several fungal diseases, apparently pretty common with strawberries. Mine look similar but they keep producing. I was going to spray and drench with Actinovate to see if it helps after this next band of rain moves through. This link was helpful:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/c...ubs/ag-386.pdf

This one was also helpful:

http://ohioline.osu.edu/b926/pdf/b926-ch5.pdf

I also noticed your soil looks wet and there's no mulch. Strawberries hate wet feet and love mulch. Apparently straw mulch is good for preventing leather fruit rot but I think it would help prevent the fungal leaf diseases as well. I use pine straw much since oat straw mulch is only available here from Halloween to Thanksgiving. Removing the dead leaves which can harbor the spores should help, too.

Good luck!

Thanks,
I'll try to get some mulch. The reason the soil is wet is because I live near Seattle. Is there any way to keep the soil dry when it rains almost every day?!? I have this problem with all my plants. I would think that mulch would just make the soil soggier.

Thanks everyone!
Taryn

[DogsandDirt]

I realize you can't do anything about the weather. The mulch is just to help keep soil from splashing onto the leaves when it rains.

[RebelRidin]

Originally Posted by tgplp

Thanks,
I'll try to get some mulch. The reason the soil is wet is because I live near Seattle. Is there any way to keep the soil dry when it rains almost every day?!? I have this problem with all my plants. I would think that mulch would just make the soil soggier.

Thanks everyone!
Taryn

With rain being an almost daily event drainage is key for you. The prescence or abscence of a mulch will likely not matter much on that front but as DogsandDirt noted it can prevent soil and the diseases it carries from splashing about. A fellow I met from Seattle area once told me that he had drainage tile/pipes installed under his raised garden beds.

Strawberries grown in the ground will usually suffer some diseases over time. It is a given. A neighbor of mine used to keep four matted rows. Each fall one row would get all the old straw from the other beds spread on it and burnt off with a fast moving fire. Then he mulched around the plants in all the beds with some rotted manure and then fresh straw on top. The following spring in the bed he had burned he rooted every runner they put out and removed the older plants. He rotated through his beds this way, burning and rejuvinating. He always had very nice plants and berries and lots of them.

[Elizabeth]

Mine do that as a reaction to cold weather. The new leaves should come in green and normal looking - no treatment needed.

[RebelRidin]

I would agree with Elizabeth. Early season takes a bit of time to shake off and get going...

[MissHailey]

Maybe make a little makeshift green house?

[tgplp]

Originally Posted by MissHailey

Maybe make a little makeshift green house?

Any suggestions of how to go about that? Could I just drape some plastic wrap over the strawberries or something? That might just make it wetter though... what's your idea?

Thanks,
Taryn

[Tracydr]

Might try some actinovate, too. I've put it on my strawberries and roses. Can't believe how fast the results have been!

[tgplp]

Wow, it seems like this wasn't a problem at all. It's almost June, and my strawberries have lost all signs of that disease! They are beautiful, green plants, with many flowers and berries! No ripe fruits yet, but some are beginning to color up. Last year, birds ate my strawberries (although the one I did try tasted amazing!), so this year I placed some netting over them. I am so excited for these strawberries. I'll post pics in a second!


Taryn

[tgplp]

Alright, here are some of my strawberries:

Strawberry plants under netting


Unripe strawberries






Aaaaaand, for good measure, marigold and petunia flowers:


Taryn

[lakelady]

I like that netting, I should get some. Wonder if I can keep the chipmunks from eating mine? Seems like when they get close to turning red, they disappear. Only to be found half eaten someplace else.

My leaves looked like yours too early on. Some pretty funky colors of red and orange! New Jersey is starting to seem an awful lot like Seattle the past few summers....only hotter!

[kath]

Taryn, I love your excitement about your strawberries! They are one of the most fun crops to grow. I try to be vigilant and just pick off any funky spotted or colored leaves and the plants just keep on growing. They look pretty bad after the winter but once they get going they're pretty vigorous. Wait 'til you see what your beds look like next year!

That is nice netting- we use bird netting but we once had a chipmunk get tangled up in it...DH had to cut him loose and it took a long time.

Originally Posted by lakelady

Wonder if I can keep the chipmunks from eating mine? Seems like when they get close to turning red, they disappear. Only to be found half eaten someplace else.

How annoying is it to find those half-eaten ones?! There's one who likes to eat them while hiding in my carrots, flattening half the tops each time he goes in.