Strawberry plant deaths

We usually expect a few plant deaths after planting, but the number of losses this year seems to be higher than usual.

Hopefully the photo of the dead plant above is uncommon in your fields this spring, but if you’re having a similar experience to us, we’re seeing quite a few. If you’re seeing this, slice open a few crowns and see what their guts look like.

It’s not surprising that field-grown runners have some phytophthora going on, given the very wet growing season last year. Runner growers fumigate their fields to knock back phytophthora each year before planting, but in heavy rain, water moving over the soil surface can bring this common disease in again.

Hopefully growers have dipped their plants in something like phosphorous acid before planting, which helps plants combat the disease. We did, but even so we’re seeing some infected plants die.

If you’re having problems with plants continuing to die, you may want to apply another drench against phytophthora.

Phosphorous acid is exempt from residue tolerances and can be used at any time. Other fungicides are not labeled for drench use in strawberries in NZ, so any use is at the grower’s risk and fruit must comply with the fruit residue tolerance. Ridomil Gold SL (active ingredient metalaxyl) is not labeled for use in strawberries in NZ, but is labeled in other parts of the world, and is used for phytophthora root rot in asparagus at 1.3ml/m2. Metalaxyl tolerance for strawberries in NZ is 2 ppm.

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