Strawberries going brown/rotting?

[AnastasiaBF]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum and also to gardening/growing your own, really. This summer I have my own garden for the first time and I definitely have the gardening bug.

I have some strawberry plants in pots, these are actually from last spring and wintered outside in their pots. The plants look quite healthy (to me), but some of the berries themselves look like they're going slightly brown, also like they've been soaked in water for too long. The berries are hanging over the edge of the pot and are not touching the soil in the pot. It looks like some of the stems that these particular berries are on are going brown as well. Please see the picture attached for details.



Could someone please help me to understand what's going on? I'd love to save my strawberry plants. It's too early to tell if this is happening to the others yet.

Thank you so much for your help! I really appreciate it.

Anastasia.

[cheops]

I think the problem with your strawberries is 'leather rot'. More likely to strike in prolonged wet and humid weather. Leather rot attacks both immature and mature berries. On green berries, infected areas are dark brown. On ripe fruit, the areas are white to purple. Infected fruits are tough, leathery, and have a bitter taste. The best controls for this disease are preventive measures. Promptly remove any berries showing signs of the disease. Space plants 18 inches apart so air can circulate and the leaves will dry quickly.

[Penellype]

Hi Anastasia. You don't say where you are - if you are in America this could be leather rot, but that is unlikely if you are in the UK. Either way I would remove affected fruit and any other part that is damaged eg stems and dispose of them - don't put them in the compost heap. Most mould infections including leather rot like warm, humid conditions.

Alternatively its possible your plants have been a bit dry, and another possibility is red spider mite, which likes hot, dry conditions. I have had strawberry fruit shrivel up like this when they have been too dry.

[AnastasiaBF]

Thank you very much for a quick reply, Penellype and Cheops.

Sorry - I'm so new all this I didn't even think to mention where I am! I'm in the UK, in London. My first thought from Google was also leather rot, but as the berries aren't touching the soil I thought this might be unlikely (unless, of course, I misunderstood something). It's also definitely not been warm lately!

I always make sure the pots are watered (but not over watered!), so I think anything from them being too dry is probably unlikely, but I can't say for certain.

I did see a tiny little red spider looking thing around - perhaps this is the mite you refer to? What's the best way to deal with those?

I'll remove the three affected berries for now and hope that things improve!

Thank you for your help,
Anastasia.

[Baldy]

Well, its a rot of some sort I guess - 'leather rot' or 'crown rot' maybe? I've had it on the odd plant before now - I suspect that you should probably get rid of the infected plants. I'm not 100% sure of my diagnosis so lets wait for some more knowledgeable peeps to come along...

Welcome to the Vine by the way...

Balders

[Baldy]

Took a long time to complete my post - so I sound like I'm just regurgitating earlier info... and not 'dissing' cheops and Pennelype as I'm sure they class as 'knowledgable peeps'

[AnastasiaBF]

Thanks, Balders! I got rid of the three berries and their stems that you can see in the pic. I only have five plants in total (three from last year and two new ones) so I don't want to get rid of the entire plant just yet - hopefully it can recover. But the plants are all in separate pots to each other, so hopefully that means they won't "infect" each other.

[Penellype]

The spider mites are very very small and not actually red. You may need a magnifying glass to see them. They suck the sap of plants and when they want to move onto anew leaf they make littel webs - these are often the first things you see, apart from the plant looking generally unwell and a bit dried up. I don't really think it is red spider mite if the weather has been cool and damp - they can be deterred by misting with water, but you don't want to do that if the fruit is already rotting.

[Ryez]

I always wondered what these red tiny spiders, that Anastasia mentioned, are. I see them occasionally wondering around my potatoes leaves, I know they are not red spider mite, but what are they?

I hope throwing the infected part of the plant away will help, but if it is not fungus, could it relate to nutrition? Like calcium deficiency has similar characteristics. Do you use organic fertilizer with trace elements in it? You could try giving it a bit of calcium maybe to be on the safe side.

[cheops]

[QUOTE=Ryez;1452960]I always wondered what these red tiny spiders, that Anastasia mentioned, are. I see them occasionally wondering around my potatoes leaves, I know they are not red spider mite, but what are they.
They are not spiders. They are mites.
No larger than a pinhead, these red bugs will leave behind a tell-tale stain when smashed, which I have to shamefully admit I find very amusing.

[Ryez]

Thank you very much for explaining Cheops, are they dangerous to the plants? They move too fast to smash!

[cheops]

With practice you will become faster than them.
Their proper name is clover mites.

Clover mites feed by sucking sap from various plants. They feed on clover, lawn and other grasses, various trees, ornamental plants and shrubs, but do not cause much damage. High numbers are often associated with maintained and well-fertilized lawns.

[Ryez]

It was really bugging me to find out what they are. Big thanks Cheops!

[Martin H]

I don't know what the sickness is, but I would cut off and bin any with a brown stem or a brown calyx, to stop it spreading. A healthy berry has green stem and calyx. At least the rest of the plant and the other berries look nice!

[AnastasiaBF]

Thanks, Martin and Ryez. I've removed the affected berries. I give the strawberries some seaweed based fertiliser at the moment. I'll hunt down something with calcium and will try that! Thank you.