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Strawberries and Caneberries
 
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WED, SEP 18 2024
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Comments:
by Judy J
on June 6, 2013 at 6:18 PM
Our olallieberries have this disease. Are the berries safe to eat if washed?
by Mark Bolda
on June 6, 2013 at 6:37 PM
Hi Judy,  
 
First, YES, your berries are safe if they are washed.  
Secondly, I doubt the disease that your Ollalieberries have is orange rust, it almost certainly is stem and cane rust, which is Kuehneola uredinis. I know this because trailing blackberries (or dewberries if you want to be exact) don't get orange rust. Anyway, enjoy your berries!
by John greenhaw
on July 16, 2013 at 7:41 PM
I have a planting of Chester and Triple Crown trailing blackberries that is three years old. They produced an unexpectedly large crop last year and this year they're so loaded down they're twisting the 4 x 4's I used for line post. They are mulched with a deep layer of straw that I put on the original planting and have added to every year. Out of nowhere this year the Triple Crown developed orange, rusty looking spots on the leaves. It covers half of the leaves in most cases BUT its not on the underside. There sre no 'pustules' on the underside of the leaves and from above you cant see orange in the margins. These places are very dry and the leaf will crumble. Chester is unaffected. I thought it might be a lack of water so I poured it on with a soaker hose. A lot of water. Now the Triple Crown leaves look pale.. Chester is up hill from Triple Crown so i thiught the paleness could be due to over watering. Could the 'rust' be due to lack of water? And could the paleness after I watered be due to too much water? Remember Chester is uphill and unaffected. Please help, I'm about to start digging and burning.
by Don Thode
on May 18, 2014 at 11:39 AM
I noticed last year that I had some orange rust on the bottom of some of the leaves on my black raspberry plans. The ones with the rust will not blossom and produce any fruit. I cut them out and this year I noticed that I have the rust again on some of them and on close inspection I saw some very, very small black bugs also on the affected leaves. Not sure if they are part of the problem or just feeding on the rust?
by Mark Bolda
on May 19, 2014 at 7:10 AM
Hi Don,  
It's hard to tell with a picture, but I suspect the rust you are seeing is either yellow or late leaf rust, both of which are common on raspberries. I am guessing that these also occur on black raspberry.  
Could you look closely at those small black bugs? I suspect those might be masses of teliospores, which are overwintering stages of the rust. If you send me some pictures I will tell for sure.
by Ann
on June 4, 2016 at 3:32 PM
I've been battling orange rust for several years in my black raspberry patch. Is the soil contaminated (i.e. should a start a new patch somewhere else) or is it 'safe' to plant new plants in the locations where I have removed infected plants?
Reply by Mark Bolda
on June 18, 2016 at 10:41 AM
I think the safer bet would be to move to the new spot. That said, if you did a good job of removing the roots of your last, infected planting you should be ok too.  
 
Mark
by Kevin
on June 18, 2016 at 5:41 AM
I have the same problem,have sprayed my plants but am thinking of cutting all the effected plants out and cleaning up around the area's effected. cutting them back now,will that kill the vines effected ? And is cutting them back the right course of action?
Reply by Mark Bolda
on June 18, 2016 at 10:43 AM
You have to remove the roots also, otherwise new cane is going to grow out of the rhizomes around the roots. That cane is also infected with this systemic fungus.  
 
Dig out the plants, and get as much of the roots as possible.  
 
Mark
by Scott Gray
on June 26, 2016 at 4:21 PM
Hi Mark,  
We pulled our blackberries plants all out because of the rust invading our plants over the last three years. Should these infected plants go into the garbage instead of the greenwaste recycle?  
How many years should we waite before we plant blackberries in the same place. We don't have an alternate spot.  
We live in Corralitos Ca.  
Thanks,  
Scott
by Mark Bolda
on July 7, 2016 at 11:52 AM
Hi Scott,  
Nothing I find in the literature points to long term survival in the soil. Given that this fungus survives either as mycelium in living plant parts or teliospores of undefined duration, if you gave the spot a year or two between the time of plant removal and the time of putting new ones you should be ok. This would give you time for the roots containing mycelium to break down and probably a lot of teliospores to die.
by Patsy Diane Garoupa
on June 15, 2017 at 5:18 PM
I have 200 olallaberry plants that are severely infected with rust. There are boysens on one side of them and triple crown blackberries on the other side. Is there danger of the other two berry types getting infected? Thanks
by Mark Bolda
on June 15, 2017 at 5:35 PM
Hi Patsy,  
A couple of things going on here. The rust your Ollalies are infested with is actually leaf & cane rust (Keuhneola uredinis), and this will definitely migrate to your Boysens. Be careful there.  
The Triple Crowns very likely won't take it up though, but watch those closely for the orange rust depicted in this article.  
Mark
by Jay
on May 20, 2018 at 3:52 PM
I live just south of Red Bluff Ca. my blackberries have it every year for 5-6 years now we eat them every year now my question could this stuff cause cancer in someone with health problems?
by Mark Bolda
on May 21, 2018 at 6:15 AM
Hi Jay,  
I don't think that would be the case. Orange rust is a a fungus, so one is consuming something that has a lot of the components of a mushroom.  
 
Mark
by Ken
on July 11, 2018 at 3:30 PM
Why do my blackberries get a hard, brownish coloring on the fruit. It's like part of the fruit went to seed and the rest is fine.
by Mark Bolda
on July 12, 2018 at 6:42 AM
Hi Ken,  
Sounds like you are confronting a case of sunburn, but without any pictures or anything it's hard for me to tell. That or a lack of water. Has the sun exposure been long?  
Mark
by Bryan
on April 15, 2019 at 9:29 AM
This last week-end I learned that some of my blackberry plants are infested with (I think) orange rust. Most of the 3-leaf clusters from last year are covered on the underside with an orange rust, but none of the new leaf laterals (with flower buds) have any. Since I have few plants, I went through and removed all of the old leaves. The plants are budding for fruit and I hate to remove them now, but I’d hate for my Boysenberries and Olallieberries to get it. I know you told Judy in 2013 that Ollalieberries aren’t likely to get orange rust, but the same problem has already occurred in two potted Olallieberries to a much lesser degree. I would love to know what my infestation actually is, and I have pictures.
by Mark Bolda
on April 15, 2019 at 7:34 PM
Hi Bryan,  
I answered you directly, but what you have (thanks for the pictures) is cane and stem rust and not orange rust. Stem and cane rust is quite common on trailing blackberry varieties like Ollalie and Boysens so your situation is not unusual. Refer to the UC IPM guidelines for more direction on how to manage it. Thanks for checking in!
 
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