Gray Rot Of Strawberries And Strawberries

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Gray rot especially affects berries located in close proximity to the soil. During the ripening period of juicy berries, its mass development takes place. Often, gray rot is rampant in storage facilities where the necessary disinfection has not been carried out. If the summer is cool and rainy, then it spreads at a truly incredible speed. On old berry bushes, the percentage of damage to such an unpleasant ailment is usually much higher than on young ones

A few words about the disease

On the surfaces of rotten berries affected by gray rot, a fluffy lumpy coating of gray appears, which, at the slightest touch, crumbles into dust. Brownish specks form on the stalks. When combined, they form a kind of rings that provoke the drying of delicate stalks.

The causative agent of such an unpleasant fungal disease overwinters most often on infected bushes, as well as on mummified fruits. The harmful fungus prefers shady, damp and damp places. It develops most often in the soil, as well as on leaves, peduncle axes and berry surfaces. In the summer, the spread of gray rot occurs by spores carried by rain and wind.

How to fight

When growing strawberries and strawberries, it is extremely important to observe not only the basic agrotechnical standards, but also the rules for caring for such plantings (their density, feeding, as well as light and water conditions are especially important). Berry crops are often grown in film shelter tunnels. It is equally important to carry out various preventive measures aimed at combating caterpillars and weevils, as well as moths and other ailments and parasites.

When growing strawberries with strawberries, it is important to avoid excessive thickening of the plantings - on each square meter of the plot, it is more than enough to place about seven berry bushes. It is recommended to mulch strawberry and strawberry beds to avoid contamination and contact of berries with the soil. For the same purpose, you can also install supports for flower stalks. Chopped straw (wheat or rye, ideally barley) is an excellent insulating material. Mulching the soil with pine needles will also do a good job. But the use of spruce branches must be abandoned - the berries that fall on its needles are pierced and quickly clogged, which in turn contributes to their subsequent infection. Rotten shavings and sawdust are also not the best option for mulch.

Growing berry bushes should be fertilized in moderation. When fertilizing with manure, instead of fresh manure, it is better to introduce rotted manure, because fresh manure almost always enhances the development of the disease and thereby significantly reduces the quality of the crop. It is very important not to overdo it with nitrogen fertilizing, and in a rainy summer it is categorically not recommended to feed berry plantings with bird droppings or slurry, especially before starting harvesting. It is better to limit yourself to dry mineral phosphate-potassium dressings (potassium salt, superphosphate) on the eve of berry ripening. And when the berries are harvested, you can safely apply a complete mineral fertilizer that includes nitrogen (for example, ammonium nitrate). Foliar dressing of strawberries with strawberries also gives good results.

Strawberries and strawberries should be placed in the beds in such a way that they receive good lighting, especially in the morning hours (until about 11 or 12 hours). And so that the berries ripen and ventilate better, sometimes up to half of the leaves are removed from the bushes.

At the stage of protruding peduncles, as well as at the start of flowering of berry bushes, they are sprayed with 0.2% benlate (foundationol). But the effect of spraying with Bordeaux liquid in this case will be very insignificant.

Affected berries should be constantly collected and destroyed along with the dead leaves. And greenhouses with greenhouses periodically need to be disinfected. If all the above conditions are met, the berry harvest will certainly be able to please every toiler-gardener.