I posted this on other forum, but no response. I'm growing my Tristar hydroponically this year, and having problems with browning leaf tips. I thought it was the cold at first, but it has warmed, and still the tips brown. growth is great. Any thoughts?
Strawberry leaves turning brown?
I know absolutely nothing about hydroponic gardening. However, there is a Hydroponic Forum. I would bet that there are gardeners on that forum who can help you with your questions. I know some of them do grow strawberries.
Good luck, and I'm sorry I can't help you,
Karen
The same thing happened to me this season and I am not hydroponic! My strawberries are grown in EBs and they also developed rusty brownish leaves and rapidly deteriated to death. Never had this problem before? My strawberries were Tribute.
My strawberries are Eversweet in a raised bed. They are booming with berries this year. They didn't do much last year, their first, and got some kind of fungus that turned the leaves brown on some plants. I drenched them with a home-made fungus cure. I did lose about half a dozen plants, but the rest recovered.
Karen
What was the homemade fungus cure?????
Cornmeal. I just put it all around the plants and watered it in really well. If I remember correctly, I did it twice about a week apart. I've read that there is horticultural cornmeal, but I just used the stuff from the grocery store. Worked just fine. You can soak a cup of it in a gallon of water for 24 hours and then use that "tea" as a foliar spray, too. You can also use a heaping handful once a month at the base of plants as a preventative. I've not bothered to do that as that one time is the only fungus problem I've had. I had looked up on the internet diseases affecting strawberry plants. Found a perfect description in three places, so that's how I knew the problem was fungal.
I had aphids last year on a couple of my tomato plants. Got rid of them with two sprayings of soapy water, and they didn't come back. I was told that to get rid of the mites on my brug plants I had to spray them with Neem oil. Sprayed several times, and it didn't work. So, I started spraying them really hard every day with just straight water. The mites were gone in a week and didn't come back.
I had Japanese beetles last year. I didn't spray or use anything on them because they only got on my cannas and were eating little holes in the leaves. It didn't seem to be giving the cannas much of a problem and did not get on anything else, even the rose bushes just six feet away, so I left them alone.
The squash bugs I had I just "squashed".
I don't like to use chemicals if I can help it. We have too many birds, bees, toads, lizards, lady bugs, and butterflies for that. So far, until now, I haven't had to. However, I recently found out that the "bug" problem in my two peach trees is the plum curculio moth. So, the other day I bought my first chemical stuff, Malathion, and an extra sprayer to use only for that application. The peach trees are quite a distance from the rest of my plantings so that's a blessing there. I won't have to worry about it traveling to other plants.
Karen
i was wondering if it might not be to much nitrogen, as I heard that strawberries a sensitive to this. Or maybe the crowns are staying to wet??? Mine are Tribute also. I will take a picture in the morning. The newer leaves are looking better now. My hydroponic solution is two part, so might try to change the ratio a bit. Also, I cut down on the frequency of watering which seemed to dry out the crowns a bit. If I continue to have problems I may try Karen's cornmeal suggestion. maybe the damp crowns are the underlying problem causing the fungus?
Good idea. Like I said, I know absolutely nothing about hydroponics.
Karen
Me either ;-) But I like to experiment. Most the really good information is here, as that forum has very little activity.
Oh, I didn't know that. I don't think I've been to that forum more than a couple of times.
Here are some places to look up strawberry diseases. I tried to find those with photos:
http://plant-disease.ippc.orst.edu/plant_searchResults.cfm?host_see=Strawberry
http://www.canr.msu.edu/vanburen/e-1728.htm
http://www.ipm.uiuc.edu/diseases/series700/rpd702/index.html
Good luck,
Karen
Thank you Karen for the very informative info especially the corn meal. I just planted eleven roses and molds are a big problem down here. Do you think the corn meal will help to give some resistence?
It couldn't hurt. You could put a handful around the base of each rose. The stuff is cheap. What does the mold look like?
Looks as if different types of fungi are a big problem with roses. A couple of the fungi look like molds.
Here are good links to descriptions:
http://www.rose-roses.com/problems/fungi.html
http://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheets/hgic2106.htm
Karen