North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>]

As usual, when picking strawberries yesterday, I came across some with a 
soft, whitish, watery blotch on the berry. It's usually, but not always, 
on a ripe berry. I've always thought that was sun scald, but... 
something about it yesterday made me wonder about that. IS it just sun 
scald, or is it a disease or a fungus of some type? Some of the berries 
are pretty well covered by it.

I've never sprayed my strawberry patch with a fungicide (with anything, 
actually), because I don't ever see leaf spots. The biggest problem my 
strawberries usually have is not getting enough water. But I've run the 
sprinkler on them a few times recently, because it's been so very dry 
here lately (usually, I don't water them until after the strawberry 
season is over), so maybe that's causing some fungal problems. 
Yesterday, I did find more of these problems than usual.

So, anyone know what causes this?

Thanks,

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

--
We must conduct research and then accept the results. If they don't 
stand up to experimentation, Buddha's own words must be rejected. - 
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama