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Strawberry diseases and pests: how to treat
Sweet strawberries require careful care, otherwise, instead of healthy and very tasty berries, you will have to collect rotten, ugly deformed berries. Strawberry disease is a serious problem for the gardener that can be solved.
Diseases and pests of strawberries
The most dangerous disease, due to which most of the strawberry crop can die, is powdery mildew. First, small whitish spots appear on flowers and leaves, then the fungus spreads to all parts of the plant and the berries themselves. A fluffy white coating forms on them, the strawberries begin to rot.
Strawberries will be protected from diseases by preventive treatment.
There are other diseases that can kill garden strawberries. Brown or white spot affects leaves, in some cases spreads to stems and fruits.
Another extremely unpleasant disease is fungal rot. She is able to destroy half of the crop. The fungus develops on berries, although other parts of the plant can also be affected.
Pests do no less harm to garden strawberries:
- nematode worms;
- strawberry mites;
- raspberry-strawberry weevil;
- slippery;
- strawberry leaf beetle;
- penny slobber.
Feeding on leaves and berries, pests spoil the harvest. It is impossible to cure the plant. To get rid of pests and stop the spread of diseases, the strawberry bush should be destroyed, the land should be treated with a disinfecting agent, and only then the new planting material should be rooted.
How to treat strawberries from diseases and pests
To protect the strawberry bushes from death, it is important to monitor the environmental conditions and care for the strawberries. You can not plant the plant in too wet soil, water abundantly, creating a greenhouse effect, leave old leaves for the winter.
But especially important is the preventive treatment of the beds with substances that prevent the development of fungal diseases, act on plants as stimulants of immunity. Strawberry beds are sprayed with:
- special biological products;
- ash liquor;
- soda ash solution.
Fighting strawberry pests is very difficult, and in some cases it is simply pointless. For example, if a nematode is found, the affected bushes need to be dug, poured over with a 4% formalin solution and eliminated, it is best to burn. If the strawberries are hit by a tick, the bushes are treated with a solution of phyto-farm, actellikt, as well as neoron or apolo. Tsipershans, karbofos can save from a weevil.
There are folk remedies for pest and disease control of strawberries. The bushes can be sprayed with a decoction of bird cherry for slugs, an infusion of onion peels for ticks, a decoction of hot pepper from a weevil, an infusion of rotted hay from powdery mildew.
To protect the crop from death, strawberries need to be looked after. Preventive treatment of bushes is mandatory at least twice a season.