Strawberries how to keep during Fall and hit by disease?

Question

1. My strawberry re being hit by some brown thing all around the sides and they look like as thought they are dark to light brown rusty looking leaves... Are they dead or can I still salavage them? I sprayed some of those 3 in one fungicide and also used Ortho... some kind of whitish calamine lotion type of spray but it did not seem to work on either one of them.

2. During Fall and winter how do I keep them or do I need to replant them [strawberries] all over again? As the winter can go down to 32 or less sometimes but not more than that...

Answer 1

If your winter only gets to 32 you don't have to use mulch on them.

Spray them with Captan for leaf spot in the spring.

Most of the time the leaves die back in the summer.  Some people cut the leaves off right after harvest to get new leaves to grow.

Answer 2

when mulching, put plastic bags over the plant.  Poke a few holes. Watch for box turtles.  About the size of a quaurer.  They are hard to find, and they will eat your berries and leaves.   Good luck!

Answer 3

You have rust on your strawberries - get some strawberry spray from the garden center - take in a leaf and show them what it looks like - they will give you the right product.  I think it is  copper sulfate, but I can't remember for sure.  

Mulch your strawberries over the winter.  Straw or hay both work well.  Large evergreen branches work well also.  There is special garden row cover that works well for this job, but the squirrels really like it and steal it for their winter nests.

Answer 4

1)  You're describing Grey Mold, common on strawberries.  You need to police them frequently, and remove and discard any that show signs - otherwise, it'll just keep spreading.

Here's more info on it, and how to control it:

http://www.ipm.uiuc.edu/fruits/diseases/...

2)  Lots of folks mow their strawberry patch in late summer or fall.  I don't.  I don't do anything to them for the winter, and they do just fine.  (And temps here frequently fall down to the signle digits - definitely "winter", by anyone's terms)

But because you're having trouble with fungal problems, I would definitely mow and remove the leaves.  If you rarely get below freezing, you probably don't even need to mulch.  Though if you lived here, I'd recommend a clean bed of straw to protect the crowns for the winter.

Answer 5

Find some Organic growing methods............

Don't you think it's gross to spray such a squishy food with fungicides? You can bet 100% there will be lots of residues in it when you eat. YUCK!

Answer 6

I think it just got moldy or something, try butting it in salt, or a preservative.