By Clint Thompson
North Alabama’s strawberry season continues to progress. Growers should be aware that one disease is noticeably present, according to Eric Schavey, regional Extension agent in Northeast Alabama.
“We’re seeing a little sclerotinia. That’s soilborne and you rotate away from that. It was actually in some new ground. You treat it like you do gray mold, botrytis or something like that,” Schavey said.
Disease symptoms in strawberries can lead to plant collapse, soft rot on fruits and white, cottony mycelium growth. Entire plants or leaves can collapse and appear dead. Fruit will develop soft, watery lesions that spread throughout the berry. The disease favors weather conditions that are mostly cool and wet.
“We’re seeing some of that around, not a lot. I think it’s because we’ve got a little bit of cold damage from when we were cold for a few days,” Schavey said. “It’s one of those things where once you start seeing signs of it, symptoms of it, it’s really too late to prevent, but if you keep on your preventative fungicide schedule, you’re okay.”
One disease that has been mostly quiet and appears to stay that way is Neopestalotiopsis. It was problematic for the state’s strawberry growers last year. However this year, most producers obtained bare root plants out of California and Idaho where the disease is not present. Schavey confirmed the disease’s non-existence this year.
“Transplants look good. It’s kind of quieting down about that,” Schavey said.