Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: sandygreen on May 18, 2011, 12:54

Title: Strawberry leaves going brown
Post by: sandygreen on May 18, 2011, 12:54
I have six strawberry plants in a small grow bag which I bought last year and had a really good crop of strawberries.  I cut them back over the winter and they have grown back with loads of strawberries on again. However, a few of the leaves have gone brown and have died just around the edges of the leaves, the rest of the leaves and strawberries look fine.  This started when we had a lot of cold winds a few weeks ago after the hot weather and I wondered if it could be wind burn.

when I bought them there was an information sheet with the bag advising to feed the strawberries every day once fruiting with tomato feed which I did.  I have also done that this year as obviously the compost is a year old.  I just wondered if I was over feeding them, if that could be the cause of the brown, although that didn't happen last year.



Title: Re: Strawberry leaves going brown
Post by: BabbyAnn on May 18, 2011, 14:30
when I bought them there was an information sheet with the bag advising to feed the strawberries every day once fruiting with tomato feed which I did.

are you sure it advised every day?  Most feeding schedules are weekly, fortnightly, monthly but rarely daily.  Fertiliser burns occur due to excess nitrogen salts - if you had been using a high nitrogen feed then I might think it  possible although the fact that you are using the same compost from last year should imply a depletion of nutrients.  At a guess I'd say it was a combination of an early heat wave (young tender leaves got scorched which showed up about the time of the cold winds) or maybe the compost has got dry at some point, or both?  If the rest of the leaves and fruit look fine, I wouldn't worry too much
Title: Re: Strawberry leaves going brown
Post by: sandygreen on May 18, 2011, 16:03
I thought feeding was excessive but as I bought the planter from a pick your own place which has acres of strawberries I thought they might know better than me! (who knows nothing about strawberries apart from eating them!)

as you say, I think probably the weather and possibly the planter going dry.  Thanks for your help
Title: Re: Strawberry leaves going brown
Post by: bendipa on May 19, 2011, 05:44
I posted about this a few weeks back, ie browning of the leaves which starts at the margin (http://www.flickr.com/photos/12074760@N03/5648608113/) and spreads inwards, killing the leaf. I first encountered this problem last year and ended up losing about half my plants in the end. There's nothing I can find on the web about this but I've noticed some growers in another forum reported the same problem. Sometimes the new leaves emerging from the crown are already discoloured brown.

I think it may be a fungal disease rather than a feeding problem. I've tried spraying the unaffected plants with  systemic fungicide, and up to now there are no  symptoms arising on those. However the affected plants continue to slowly deteriorate even when sprayed. I've had 2 plants (out of 30) succumb this early in the season, but the others seem alright so far