Why does a strawberry rot on a bush and what to do?
Novice gardeners are often puzzled when the bush begins to rot.The fact is that there are many reasons for such trouble, and only by finding out the true one, you can fix everything and save the harvest. Otherwise, the fruits, like the bush itself, will begin to deteriorate, and as a result they cannot be eaten at all.
Causes
Strawberries on a bush usually rot for several reasons.
- The first is, of course, the wrong farming technique. Very often, the plant rots in the garden, simply because it is banal flooded with water. Although watering garden strawberries requires regular, it should not be abundant at all, especially during the flowering period and during fruiting. Care should be taken when fertilizers are applied or anti-insect treatments.
- Culture often undergoes both fungal and viral diseases. A berry suffering from various kinds of rot dies very often.
- It also happens that the cause of decay is the impact of birds or insect pests. Birds gnaw through holes in the berries, but, not having time to fully peck them, fly away, leaving the fruit damaged. In turn, they begin to rot, and then dry. If the culture is planted in such a way that wet and dark places are combined with humus soil, then we should expect slugs, snails and the like to appear. Pests gnaw holes in the berries, which again leads to their decay.
- Sometimes the strawberries begin to rot, not even having time to ripen. In many cases, this suggests that there is a waterlogging of the soil or planting too densely planted. In the first case, it is important to reduce watering, and in the second - if possible, order and weed the beds.
- Not ripe, tubers rot and in the case when the culture is planted in the lowlands, where there are accumulations of moisture. Unfortunately, in this case, the situation is almost impossible to correct.
If the problem is excessive precipitation, then you need to try to create an improvised canopy.
Types of rot
Gray rot is the most common fungal disease in strawberries. Her disputes are not afraid of low temperatures, therefore, having overwintering in the soil, in the spring, young shrubs become active again and hit. If time does not respond to the situation, then gray mold can destroy almost half of the entire crop. It will be possible to determine the occurrence of the disease by carefully examining the berries: the affected fruits are covered with brown spots with a grayish tinge.
The disease is activated at a temperature of ten to fifteen degrees of heat and high humidity - usually it happens in mid-April or after heavy rains. Dispute proliferation accelerates with the appearance of fruits. Incidentally, in this case even the green berry is damaged.
Black rot develops at high humidity and temperature, when the first indicator reaches 85%. The strawberries are covered with brown specks, which then darken almost to black. The fruits themselves change their texture and taste so that it becomes impossible to eat watery fruits. White rot affects both berries and strawberry leaves. The plates first change color to white and then simply dry out. The fruits immediately begin to rot, forming an unpleasant down of the same color, and the root system becomes covered with mucus.
In the case of white rot, a quick solution to the problem is doubly important, because the spores of this disease are transmitted to other bushes with the help of the wind. The main cause of white rot is excessive watering and thickening of the landings.
Late blight leathery rot destroys from one-fifth to absolutely all of the crop, arising from heavy rainfall. Identify the disease will turn on appearing on the berries dense saturated purple lilac specks. Root rot affects the root system of strawberries at high ambient temperatures and there is no damage.
This disease can be transported even with the help of garden tools or the sole of a gardener, therefore its occurrence is extremely common. Having fallen, the roots stop growing, the lower leaves change color to brown, and some parts of the plant simply die off.
Methods of struggle
To get rid of the decay of strawberries will help the treatment of both purchased drugs and folk remedies. Treatment of various types of rot is carried out with the help of Integral, Horus, 6 grams of which are diluted in ten liters of water, Teldor and other solutions. It is believed that the situation can be managed if you spray culture with iodine. As a rule, first 100 grams of laundry soap is diluted in a liter of water. In a separate container, wood ash is stirred in a liter of water, after which ten milliliters of iodine and two tablespoons of soapy liquid are added to it. The whole mixture is mixed and poured into a ten-liter bucket of water defended to the sun. You will need to water the strawberries from the watering can.
Excellent and such a common remedy as potassium permanganate will work. The bed cleared of weeds is watered with a saturated solution of potassium permanganate. After such treatment, it is recommended to pour Fitosporin, diluted in water, into the plots in order to “populate” the soil with the necessary microflora. A mixture of several ingredients used in these cases promises to be quite effective. 150 grams of finely chopped garlic head, 50 grams of soda ash, 100 grams of mustard powder, 20 grams of tar soap and 1 tablespoon of pine extract are diluted in ten liters of water. Spray such a tool can only until the berries are not lost green tint.
With regards to different types of rot, it is important to understand that the root can not be treated. The plant will need to dig and burn, and the bed must be sanitized. White and gray rot are treated by "Derozalom", and the second is also traditionally used by a three-percent Bordeaux mixture. Fusarium rot is treated with “Fundazole” and “Benorad”, and black - with “Ordan”.
Prevention
To protect the fruit from the appearance of rot, first of all you need to plant bushes with the required intervals and qualitatively mulch the beds. It is important to prevent thickening of the land, which prevents quality ventilation. Very often, the rot appears on those fruits that touch the ground, so they must be artificially raised or something under the berries, for example, black film.
As a preventive measure, in the spring and at the end of the harvest period, the beds will need to be treated with copper oxychloride. It will be possible to save strawberries from diseases by planting crops in open, well-lit areas. It is important to follow the schedule of fertilization and irrigation of beds. Experts also recommend making part of the preparation for the season disinfection with potassium permanganate or ready-made compounds.
It is recommended to cut the sheets immediately, as the crop will be harvested. In this way, not only will the recovery of culture be realized, but also the places of accumulation of parasites and malicious disputes will be destroyed. An important preventive measure is considered and the choice of variety - you must give preference to those who have innate immunity to fungal diseases, for example, "Friendship" or "Zenith".
It should be mentioned that, adding supplements, it is impossible to overdo it with nitrogenous ones, because the excess of this element leads to the fact that the plant becomes vulnerable to infections. Leaves and whiskers should not be removed in rainy weather, otherwise the spores of diseases can get on the wounds.
Besides, it is important to remove the weeds, which are the repositories for infections, in time and to destroy the damaged fruits. Some gardeners also carry out preventive measures using mustard. To do this, 50 grams of powder is diluted in five liters of heated water.The resulting solution is infused for two days, then filtered and diluted with pure water in the ratio of one to one. The leaves will need to either spray or water from the watering can.
Seasoned gardeners recommend chopping a few cloves of garlic, pouring water on them and insisting until seven days have passed. Then garlic liquid will have to be diluted in 10 liters of water, in which a bar of soap is dissolved. To prevent diseases, it is also important to provide good ventilation and to make a careful selection of planting material. It is a good idea to warm the seedlings before planting on the beds and regularly feed the bushes with a solution of two grams of potassium permanganate dissolved in a bucket of water.
In general, to avoid rotting strawberry bushes, you need to adhere to a specific scheme of action. First, optimal conditions are created for the development of culture, then a successful variety is selected, after that the proper planting occurs, and then preventive and care measures are carried out in a timely manner. Prophylactic treatments in the off-season are carried out in early November or in early March. During the growing season, the starting treatment takes place when the first sheets appear, the next - when the buds are finished, and the final one after the harvest.
Gardeners tips
Experts recommend to devote enough time to prevention, so that later there is no need to deal with intractable diseases. The main cause of rot is a long-term stay in an overly humid environment. So, the first thing is important to choose the right place for planting and use the drainage. If you can not pick up a well-lit area on a raised area, then you need to independently create raised beds or simply grow a culture in a container. A good solution would be to use a black coating that will not allow the mustache to take root, thereby thickening the fit.
Then the strawberries should improve immunity. It is necessary to feed the culture in time with the necessary fertilizers containing potassium and phosphorus, spray the bushes from insects. Be sure to promulgate the beds, and plant garlic, onions in the aisle and sprinkle all with peat and needles.
If garden strawberries still become infected with some kind of fungal disease, the spoiled berries will have to be destroyed immediately, and the harvest should be completed by mowing the tops and treating the area with fungicides.
About what to do if strawberries are rotting, see the next video.