By Clint Thompson
One Florida strawberry grower emerged relatively unscathed from last weekend’s freeze event. But now Dustin Grooms is coping with a new problem for his strawberry crop.
“We did okay. We definitely did lose a little bit of bloom, not too bad. Some of the berries got bit a little bit on the ends, but not real bad,” said Grooms, a strawberry producer with Fancy Farms in Plant City, Florida. “What we have come out with was botrytis on the other side of it. It’s bad. We’re throwing down quite a bit of fruit rot right now.”
Credit: Michelle S. Oliveira, UF/IFAS
“That’s what came on the other side of it. We survived the freeze to get to the botrytis I guess you could say.”
According to the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS), botrytis fruit rot is also known as gray mold and considered one of the most important diseases of strawberries in Florida. Infections that start in the field continue to develop during storage and transit at refrigeration temperatures.
Removal of disease fruit reduces inoculum, infection efficiency and disease spread by fruit-to-fruit contact.
The bout with botrytis appears to be one of the few bumps in the road this season for Grooms.
“The volume’s up. Price is up a little bit this year. We’re still a long way from the finish line. We’ll just have to see how this later half plays out,” Grooms said. “We’ve got a lot of bloom out here in the field right now. We’ve got to really watch these and take care of them.”
Florida growers are currently in the middle of harvest season. It started around Thanksgiving and will continue through Easter. Growers will pick every three days until April.
