Plant guide:🍓 Strawberries
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Fungal

Leaf Spot on Strawberry Plants

Commonly affects: Fragaria × ananassa (Strawberry)

Small, circular purple-to-brown spots with pale grey centres scatter across leaves, sometimes merging into larger dead patches.

Potential Causes

  1. 1Mycosphaerella fragariae fungus, spread by splashing water
  2. 2Overhead watering or rain keeping foliage wet for extended periods
  3. 3Dense plantings restricting airflow

Solution Steps

  1. 1Remove and destroy affected leaves, especially at the end of the season
  2. 2Water at the base rather than overhead
  3. 3Improve airflow through appropriate spacing and thinning runners
  4. 4Apply a copper-based fungicide if the problem is recurring

Prevention Tip

Removing old, spotted leaves at the end of each season significantly reduces the following year's infection pressure.