Plant guide:🍓 Strawberries
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⚠ Critical🩺
Fungal
Grey Mould (Botrytis) on Strawberry Fruit
Commonly affects: Fragaria × ananassa (Strawberry)
A fuzzy grey mould develops on ripening fruit, often starting where berries touch soil, mulch, or each other, spreading rapidly in cool, humid weather.
Potential Causes
- 1Botrytis cinerea fungus, one of the most common strawberry diseases
- 2Fruit resting on damp soil or mulch providing ideal conditions
- 3Dense foliage and fruit clusters restricting airflow
Solution Steps
- 1Mulch with straw to keep fruit off damp soil
- 2Space plants and thin dense foliage to improve airflow around developing fruit
- 3Harvest ripe fruit promptly rather than leaving it to overripen on the plant
- 4Remove and destroy any fruit showing early mould signs immediately
Prevention Tip
Straw mulch (the origin of the plant's common name) keeping fruit off wet soil is the single most effective non-chemical defence against grey mould.
