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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Strawberry sun scald or fungus?

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  • From: "William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Strawberry sun scald or fungus?
  • Date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:03:57 -0500


Strawberries with soft, whitish and watery blotches in my experience are
rotting.


I'm sure you're right. I was just wondering why. (They're not overly-ripe, since some of them aren't ripe at all when this happens.)


My first guess is rotting from watering. I wonder if they are getting too wet and staying wet too long?? Is there enough air circulation among the plants? You said it's been dry but can they drain or are they wet?


The reason I thought it was sun scald is because the rot seems to start on the top of the strawberry (well, on the side of the berry which is uppermost at the time), not on the underside which is in contact with the ground or mulch. That's the part of the berry which should dry off most quickly, don't you think? (On the other hand, it could be where a fungus spore might land, too.)

I definitely don't over-water them. The patch was dry as a bone when I was picking, and they were clearly hurting for water. On the other hand, my sprinkler doesn't put out much water, so I leave it run for awhile when I do water.


Yes, this sounds like fungus. What time of day do you water? You need to
water in the early AM. Evening watering leaves more water on fruit surfaces
and that makes fungi happy.


I don't water in the evenings, but from now on, I'll try to water as early in the day as possible. (We finally got a little rain last night, and there's a possibility of more tonight, so maybe nature will help out a little bit now. Of course, nature wants to rain in the evenings. Heh, heh. Can't have everything, I guess, huh?)

This hasn't been a big problem, so far. I've had strawberries for several years, and usually find a few berries like this. Last time I picked them, though, there were eight or ten berries which were rotting like this, which IS unusual. So I started to worry about a fungus (when before, as I mentioned, I'd assumed it was just sun scald).

I appreciate the replies. It seems then that no one thinks it's actually sun scald, right? But no reason to start spraying with fungicides, either? That's all I needed to know. I'll work on watering them as early in the day as possible.

Thanks much,

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

--
To be elected in America, no matter from what party, the candidates have no choice but to year after year pledge to lower taxes further and further. We have become the nation of Ken and Barbie, looking good but very poor at the math. - Rack Jite




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