By Clint Thompson
Strawberry producers are less than three months away before they start planting next year’s crop in Georgia. Their first order of business is ensuring the plants are clean before they are put in the ground. Producers want to avoid a Neopestalotiopsis (Neo) outbreak, and a careful inspection will help make that happen.
Jeff Cook, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension agriculture and natural resources agent for Peach and Taylor counties, talked about what growers need to be looking for when the time comes.
“I mean just look for unhealthy plants. A lot of times when you’ve got a spot in a nursery or if you’re growing them personally, a lot of times you might have a spot that looks a little bit off in a tray. You’ve got 50 to 75 plants in a tray and if you got a little dead spot in the middle of it, that would make me want to question that,” Cook said. “There’s other things that will happen; sometimes edges get dried or some of them didn’t get watered. If you’re seeing black spots on leaves, if you’re seeing black stems, wilted plants, and especially if they’ve got plenty of water, that would be questionable to me.
“You can always pull them out of the tray and look at the roots. If the roots don’t look healthy and white, they look reddish or they look black or brown, you’ve got something going on there.”
Disease Background
Neopestalotiopsis has been a danger to strawberry plants every year since it was first discovered during the 2018–19 season on five farms in Florida. The disease’s initial discovery was attributed to one nursery source in North Carolina. More than 20 farms experienced the disease during the 2019–20 season after it was attributed to two nursery sources early in the season in North Carolina and Canada.
It can lead to severe leaf spotting and blighting under favorable weather conditions, specifically during extended periods of wetness.
Plant source remains the best way for Southeast strawberry producers to manage Neo. That has altered where some growers obtain their plants.
“I think everybody has their sources that they feel good with. Whether it’s East Coast, West Coast, whatever, I think everybody’s got things lined up. I know I’ve talked to a couple people that got some plants from the East Coast last year and that they were happy with,” Cook said. “I don’t think there’s as much concern this year, but I think everybody in the last couple of years has found a good source that can get them a clean plant.”