Strawberries

As summer weather begins to wane giving rise to cooler daytime temperatures it’s time to either get strawberries planted for spring or maintain carry over strawberries which means it’s time to think about fall nitrogen application. The success of a spring strawberry crop hinges on the preparatory measures taken in the preceding fall. Nitrogen plays a central role in plant growth and development. Fall nitrogen fertilization equips strawberry plants with the resources they need for vigorous growth, flowering, and fruiting in the subsequent growing season.

Vegetable and Fruit News, Volume 14, Issue 5 (July 2023). Topics include: Black Root Rot found in strawberry plantings, Southern bacterial wilt of tomato, Water core in apples: what is it, what causes it and how can it be controlled?, Tomato Pollination and Bumblebee Visits, Maryland Department of Agriculture Announces New Strategy at Nutrient Management Summit, Watch for Thrips and Mites in Vegetables, Irregular Ripening In Watermelon, Cucurbit Downy Mildew Reported in Delaware, Harlequin Bugs Are Especially Bad This Season, Upcoming UME Events, and July insect scouting tips.

Black Root Rot found in strawberry plantings in the Mid-Atlantic this season.

Cyclamen mites have been found in a few Mary-land strawberry fields in the last few weeks. They are not much of a problem now but when we start to warm up, they may become more of a problem along with two spotted spider mites.

Multi-small fruit spray program for the control of major small fruit pests and diseases.

Vegetable and Fruit News, Volume 13, Issue 7 (October 2022). Topics in this issue are Sensor Placement and Row Cover Impact on Fruit Rotting Diseases, Common Weed Survey, Testing for Soluble Salt in High Tunnels, Changes to the Whole-Farm Revenue Protection and Micro Farm Insurance Workshop, SARE Grant information, Apple Workshop, and Upcoming UME & UMES events

Strawberry Botrytis fruit rot, also called gray mold (fig 1), is a common disease that typically drives fungicide sprays throughout a season. Flowers are considered the gateway for the pathogen, and some flower infections can stay latent until the fruit ripens while some may show up earlier at green berry stage under wet and cool conditions.

Various sensors can be used to monitor environmental variables in fields, including ambient temperature, relative humidity, rain depth, wind speed, leaf wetness (LWD), soil temperature, and soil moisture. These can be critical variables for decision-making for crop protection or yield prediction. These data (namely ambient temperature and LWD) can also be useful for disease prediction models such as those used for Botrytis (BFR) and anthracnose (AFR) fruit rots of strawberry (Hu et al. 2021). A traditionally placed weather station at the edge of a field (see ‘elevated’ station below) may also not fully capture the conditions in the field. Floating row covers are a common tool in Mid-Atlantic strawberry fields for manipulating the crop microclimate for facilitating crop development under cold conditions and for protecting from freeze events. Therefore, covered strawberry plants should have a vastly different microclimate than would be reported from traditionally placed weather stations or non-covered plants. We evaluated differences in sensor readings based on placements either in the canopy or in the traditional, elevated setting. We also evaluated the effect of row covers on the sensor readings. Lastly, we evaluated how these different placements would affect disease prediction models utilized in a fungicide spray program.

Vegetable and Fruit News, Volume 13, Issue 6 (September 2022). Topics in this issue are: Spots on Honeycrisp Apples, Early Insect Scouting, Bacterial Canker of Tomato, Stinkbug Damage on Tomato, Precautions for Grower during a Boil Water Advisory, Fungicide Resistance in Botrytis, Sweet Potato Harvest Curing & Storage, and upcoming events and grants.

With the cooler weather we have had of late I was surprised to find low levels of mites in strawberry fields, with a few hot spots of mites in some high tunnels. There were two species of mites found: the two spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae and the cyclamen mite Phytonemus pallidus.