Strawberries

Pre-planting renovation and soil conditioning information for new vineyards and small fruit agriculture such as grapes, strawberries, and blueberries.

Multi-small fruit spray program for the control of major small fruit pests and diseases.

Vegetable and Fruit News, Volume 13, Issue 6 (September 2022). Topics in this issue are: Spots on Honeycrisp Apples, Early Insect Scouting, Bacterial Canker of Tomato, Stinkbug Damage on Tomato, Precautions for Grower during a Boil Water Advisory, Fungicide Resistance in Botrytis, Sweet Potato Harvest Curing & Storage, and upcoming events and grants.

Fruit and Vegetable News, Volume 13, Issue 2 (May 2022). Topics in this issue are: Bruising on Strawberry Leaves, May Vegetable Insect Scouting Update, Strategies for Effective Management of Botrytis and Anthracnose Fruit Rot in Strawberries, Cold Effects on Early Transplanted Vegetables, Who has Been in my Strawberries? Slugs and Sap Beetles, Two Common Pests, and Two Spotted Spider Mites and Cyclamen Mites Found in Strawberries.

Vegetable and Fruit News, Volume 14, Issue 5 (July 2023). Topics include: Black Root Rot found in strawberry plantings, Southern bacterial wilt of tomato, Water core in apples: what is it, what causes it and how can it be controlled?, Tomato Pollination and Bumblebee Visits, Maryland Department of Agriculture Announces New Strategy at Nutrient Management Summit, Watch for Thrips and Mites in Vegetables, Irregular Ripening In Watermelon, Cucurbit Downy Mildew Reported in Delaware, Harlequin Bugs Are Especially Bad This Season, Upcoming UME Events, and July insect scouting tips.

As summer weather begins to wane giving rise to cooler daytime temperatures it’s time to either get strawberries planted for spring or maintain carry over strawberries which means it’s time to think about fall nitrogen application. The success of a spring strawberry crop hinges on the preparatory measures taken in the preceding fall. Nitrogen plays a central role in plant growth and development. Fall nitrogen fertilization equips strawberry plants with the resources they need for vigorous growth, flowering, and fruiting in the subsequent growing season.

Various sensors can be used to monitor environmental variables in fields, including ambient temperature, relative humidity, rain depth, wind speed, leaf wetness (LWD), soil temperature, and soil moisture. These can be critical variables for decision-making for crop protection or yield prediction. These data (namely ambient temperature and LWD) can also be useful for disease prediction models such as those used for Botrytis (BFR) and anthracnose (AFR) fruit rots of strawberry (Hu et al. 2021). A traditionally placed weather station at the edge of a field (see ‘elevated’ station below) may also not fully capture the conditions in the field. Floating row covers are a common tool in Mid-Atlantic strawberry fields for manipulating the crop microclimate for facilitating crop development under cold conditions and for protecting from freeze events. Therefore, covered strawberry plants should have a vastly different microclimate than would be reported from traditionally placed weather stations or non-covered plants. We evaluated differences in sensor readings based on placements either in the canopy or in the traditional, elevated setting. We also evaluated the effect of row covers on the sensor readings. Lastly, we evaluated how these different placements would affect disease prediction models utilized in a fungicide spray program.

Southern blight is a fungal disease that is most common in the tropics and subtropics, but also is found in the SE United States in the summer. In Maryland we usually find it in the southern part of the state in counties like St. Mary’s, Charles and Wicomico. It has been found this year in more northern counties such as Frederick, Montgomery and Baltimore.

This is a quick note to say that after looking at some strawberry fields in which the transplant plugs were wilting it at first looked like there could be some root disease problem.

Over the last few weeks I have been sent pictures of and have seen dark spots on the foliage of strawberry plants (figs. 1 and 2). These spots can look pretty bad at times and are thought to possibly be the start of some disease such as angular leaf spot or anthracnose. The dark spots are usually on the upper or lower surface of the leaf, but at times can be found on both surfaces of a leaf.