One of the most common diseases in strawberries is gray mold, caused by the fungus Botrytis cinerea. Its symptoms are most common on buds, flowers and fruit, but very rarely on leaves.Infected buds and then flowers turn brown and die.The most characteristic symptoms of the disease can be observed on the fruit. As they begin to discolor, light brown spots appear on the skin.
Then on the already ripening strawberries you can see damage similar to crushing. The fruit rots and its damaged tissue shows a profuse, fluffy, gray coating composed of the stems with spores of the fungus. Sometimes black lumps appear on the fallen fruit - these are spores.
In addition to using chemicals, one way to combat this dangerous disease in small spaces is to cover the rows of strawberries with straw, from flowering to harvesting the last fruit.By placing straw on the soil, we prevent spreading fungus spores overwinter in the soil.The advantage of this method is also that the fruit is clean, without soil residues.
