Anthracnose Fruit Rot of Strawberry
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Anthracnose fruit rot (Colletotrichum spp.), also called black spot, is a fungal disease that causes blossom blight and fruit rot as well as crown rot. Flowers die if infected. Fruit infected shortly after pollination remain small and hard. Fruit infected upon ripening develop firm, sunken lesions and may become hard and mummified as lesions expand to cover entire fruit. During wet or humid conditions, orange-pink spore masses ooze from lesions. Disease usually is introduced through plugs and tips. Colletotrichum spp. overwinter on dead plant tissue, infected plants, and mummified fruit.
Anthracnose fruit rot lesions.
(Photo: John Hartman, University of Kentucky)
Anthracnose fruit rot lesions.
(Photo: Nicole Ward Gauthier, University of Kentucky)
Anthracnose fruit rot mummy.
(Photo: Mike Ellis, The Ohio State University)
Management:
- Begin with clean plant material.
- Use proper sanitation.
- Remove infected fruit.
- Rotate fields with non-host crops.
- Mulch to prevent spread.
- Use fungicides to suppress disease development; fungicides do not cure disease.
