My strawberry plant was green and healthy and all of a sudden its turning black and dieing.
What can I do?
Strawberry plant turning brown and dying
Are the edges soft or mushy? Or are the turning crispy?
Have you over dosed on some fertilizer?
Same thing happened to me with my first strawberry.
It finally died, but I bought another and planted it with NO fertilizer, gave less water (I think we tend to over-water strawberries hoping it makes them big and juicy!!) and planted in a mostly sand mixture with peat moss and a small bit of potting soil. I suggest you try these things...
Not only did my new plant grow, but has already given my TWELVE new plants in the last 2 months!
My Mara Des Bois did very poorly in 2014. I put them in a low wooden pyramid planter with potting soil and I think I did regular watering. Fruit was small, and spoiled before it ripened, or got mushy, turned grey, and/or turned brown. These were bare root plants started about April. I may have erred in omitting to pinch out all blossoms this year. Any advice for tending these plants and getting a crop this coming year would be appreciated. I live in Oakland, zone 9.
"mushy, turned grey, and/or turned brown"
Sounds like a fungus that moved in on the 'too wet' plant.
I would suggest the faster draining soil mix suggested by tamarack, and mulch with something coarse enough to keep the fruit dry.
I am just starting to growing them myself, from my beginner experience I see they really don't like getting wet, especially the crown don't like being buried, it hinders new leaves from developing and causes the branches to be 'in' the soil and when it rains, the branches would rot. I lowered my soil level and keep mulch around the base of the each plants to prevent rotting.
They are in a peat-based potting soil mixture and I just water them with compost tea or rain water a few times a week at most. Right now I'm just cutting off any new flowers so they can develop more roots, I'll let them go to fruit once I feel they're strong enough.
This message was edited Dec 31, 2014 1:59 AM
I would check for vine-weevil, they love strawberry plants.
If attacked by these white maggot-like grubs the plant will come away from the soil easily, with a much reduced root system. You will easily see the grubs chomping on the roots. In the Spring they turn into much cuter looking beetle-like insects.
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