Strawberries and Caneberries

Mark here. This is the second virtual iteration of my colleague Surendra Dara's incredibly popular field day. Virtual obviously makes it easy for folks further away, and since it will be professionally managed by the UC ANR Program Management, should be easy to attend and participate.

I was called by a local raspberry grower to figure out the situation depicted below. In short, the fruit has split and both the groups of druplets and the receptacle has separated.

I had a great interview the other day with Taylor Chalstrom of JCS Marketing about our burgeoning Fusarium disease outbreak in strawberry. I am more than a little unsettled by the lack of internal industry funding going towards this serious and growing problem.

Me and the grower are of one mind that the brown spots recently showing up on fruit (this is Monterey variety), are from the strong winds we've had for the last four or so days. Makes sense, especially since there is no signs of disease or insects, and above all these spots are fairly firm.

A growing body of research out of Cornell University is showing that low doses of UV light can be quite effective against powdery mildews in agriculture, including Podosphaera aphanis, which challenges strawberry growers every year.