Albino Strawberry Fruit

From time to time we get a pink puffy looking strawberry fruit in our variety trials. We got a couple during our harvest this morning. 

These “Albino” fruit are curiously insipid in taste, and don’t store well. They are the result of an inadequate supply of sugar to the fruit during ripening, which can be caused by a few factors. 

We usually see more of it during an overcast period following warm sunny weather. We see more on some varieties (San Andreas is one), so genetics plays a part. Oddly, we usually pick good fruit and albino fruit from the same plot in the variety trial. 

California’s Integrated Pest Management of Strawberries manual has this to say:

“Inadequate sugar levels may result from shading, leaf loss, or and imbalance between vegetative growth and fruit production [too many fruit and not enough leaves]. Overcast conditions following a period of warm weather during peak fruit production or a sudden loss of leaves from pest damage can reduce the plant’s photosynthetic output below what is needed to keep up with fruit development. Prolonged or overly frequent irrigation or excess nitrogen fertilization can cause vegetative growth to draw available sugar supplies away from fruit production.” 

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