Strawberries and Caneberries

Interesting case here in the county submitted by a sharp eyed gardener. Canes presented with distributions of an unusual white, roundish mass. In the photos below notice the purplish margin around each of these, but one thing to take note of are the oblong shapes associated with them.

A couple of weeks ago I got a call from a grower and PCA concerning planting stock that had unusually large growths on the roots (pictured below) which are really typical of crown gall. Crown gall is caused by a bacterium which enters the plant through wounds.

As the year winds down, it's still busy over here as we are placing and maintaining trials.

Thanks to the education group of the California Strawberry Commission, we all have available to us a recording of the October Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. fragariae Zoom call. This includes information on the biology, epidemiology and control of this major pathogen in strawberry.

One can see here from the picture kindly provided by Doug Thomas of Crown Nursery that the cold of late is having an effect.