The scouting report for our day-neutral organic strawberry project at the West Madison Agricultural Research Station (WMARS) was done Friday September 23^rd in the afternoon. Field conditions during collections were windy and cold. This will be our final report for this year. Please follow us next year for year 2 of this scouting report.

Methods of sampling include randomly sampling 60 plants by tapping flower clusters and foliage over a wide funnel into plastic bags so that insects can be counted and identified. Each plant is inspected for disease symptoms and flower clusters are counted.

This past week, we continue to see social wasps, soldier beetles, spotted cucumber beetles, leafhoppers, spotted-wing drosophila (Fig. 1), tarnished plant bugs (Fig. 2), common leaf spot (Fig. 4), and Phomopsis leaf blight (Fig. 5), with, overall, decreasing numbers. Fruit is taking longer to ripen with the cooler weather and yield has decreased thus, at this time, we are done implementing management practices to control insect pests and diseases for the rest of the season.

Spider mites remain present in our sampling with numbers continuing to decline and 12/60 plants sampled having mites (Table 1). Thrips numbers remain stable in the last three weeks and have not caused any significant fruit injury throughout the season. Spotted-wing drosophila (SWD; Fig 1) numbers dropped to 0.09 larva per berry this week (Table 1). As we are nearing the end of the season and adult numbers in a nearby monitoring trap have declined in recent weeks, we do not anticipate spraying for SWD this season.

Tarnished plant bugs remain present at similar numbers as the past few weeks (Table 1). We have also seen the appearance of light-colored tan lygus bugs (Fig. 2) following the mowing of hay nearby the strawberry planting. These tan Lygus bugs have not been identified to species yet, but we noticed a slight increase in the number of berries exhibiting cat-facing in the horticulture plot, though no management practice will be implemented at this time of the season. Minute pirate bug numbers have decreased dramatically in the last week, likely due to the colder weather and the decrease in the number of preys to feed on (Table 1).

Table 1. The average number of insects observed per plant in day-neutral strawberries during weekly sampling.

Dates of Weekly Scouting	Mites (Average per plant)	Thrips (Average per flower cluster)	Thrips (Average per plant)	Tarnished plant bug (Average per flower cluster)	Tarnished plant bug (Average per plant)	Spotted-wing drosophila (Average per berry)	Minute Pirate Bugs (Average per plant)
6/15/2022	0.22 ± 0.11	n/a	0.16 ± 0.09	n/a	0	n/a	n/a
6/22/2022	0.01 ± 0.01	n/a	0.03 ± 0.03	n/a	0	n/a	n/a
6/28/2022	0.08 ± 0.04	n/a	0.05± 0.03	n/a	0	n/a	n/a
7/05/2022	0.13 ± 0.06	n/a	0.12 ± 0.05	n/a	0.03 ± 0.02	n/a	n/a
7/13/2022	1.28 ± 0.35	n/a	0.25 ± 0.07	n/a	0.08 ± 0.49	n/a	n/a
7/19/2022	4.30 ± 0.51	n/a	0.20 ± 0.06	n/a	0.33 ± 0.08	n/a	n/a
07/28/2022	3.37 ± 0.38	n/a	0.27 ± 0.07	n/a	1.32 ± 0.24	n/a	n/a
08/02/2022	3.62 ± 0.35	n/a	0.23 ± 0.06	n/a	1.87± 0.29	n/a	n/a
08/09/2022	2.27± 0.27	0.30 ± 0.04	0.35 ± 0.09	0.69± 0.12	2.48± 0.34	0	n/a
08/16/2022	0.68± 0.12	0.10± 0.03	0.25 ± 0.06	0.71 ± 0.11	1.55 ± 0.17	0	n/a
08/23/2022	0.63 ± 0.1	0.12 ± 0.04	0.18 ± 0.05	0.64 ± 0.14	1.03 ± 0.17	0	1.80 ± 0.23
08/27/2022	0.80 ± 0.15	0.13 ± 0.04	0.23 ± 0.06	0.56 ± 0.09	0.85 ± 0.11	0.04± 0.06	1.33 ± 0.2
09/02/2022	0.83 ± 0.12	0.21 ± 0.05	0.48 ± 0.10	0.41 ± 0.07	0.82 ± 0.13	0.10± 0.11	1.12 ± 0.15
09/09/2022	0.57± 0.11	0.06 ± 0.02	0.12 ± 0.04	0.30 ± 0.05	0.67 ± 0.1	0.23 ± 0.3	0.62 ± 0.12
09/16/2022	0.50± 0.10	0.03± 0.02	0.08± 0.04	0.31± 0.07	0.60 ± 0.09	0.41± 0.80	0.63± 0.1
09/23/2022	0.32± 0.09	0.06± 0.03	0.1 ± 0.04	0.26 ± 0.05	0.57 ± 0.1	0.09± 0.15	0.12 ± 0.05

Common Leaf Spot (Fig. 4)was consistent with last week’s numbers (Table 2). As of the latest field observations, leaf spots remain mild with only a few spots per plant.

Phomopsis Leaf Blight (Fig. 5) numbers increased among this week’s sampled plants (Table 2). This blight can lead to defoliation and fruit rot in later stages. Management techniques include removing infected leaves, weeding, and fungicide application.

Verticillium Wilt (Fig. 6) saw a decrease in frequency this week (Table 2). We observed slight discoloration in the crown tissues of some collapsed plants. Management practices are limited once plants are presenting symptoms and mortality. Avoid planting in potentially contaminated soils (i.e., soils planted to other hosts of Verticillium such as peppers, tomatoes, etc.) and prevent any root damage to the remaining healthy plants to minimize its spread.

Anthracnose (Fig. 7)showed a decrease this week concentrated among plant rows with very dense foliage (Table 2). It’s possible a combination of rainy days, overripe berries, weeds, and dense foliage are responsible for the increase. This disease presents as sunken areas on the fruit appearing tan to dark brown. Available organic fungicides for managing anthracnose are most effective when disease pressure is low. Additional management includes removing ripe and infected fruits regularly to slow its spread. To read more about Anthracnose and other fruit rots of strawberry check out the article “Fruit Rots of Strawberry”.

Powdery Mildew symptoms (Fig. 8) have been observed and samples are currently being processed in the lab for confirmation. Powdery mildew can be identified through its characteristic leaf curling, white powdery coating on the underside of leaves, and deformed powdery fruit (Fig. 9).

Table 2. The average number of disease symptoms observed per plant in day-neutral strawberries during weekly sampling.

Dates of Weekly Scouting	Common Leaf Spot (Average per plant)	Phomopsis Leaf Blight (Average per plant)	Verticillium Wilt (Average per plant)	Anthracnose (Average per plant)	Powdery Mildew Symptoms (Average per plant)
6/15/2022	0	0	0	0	0
6/22/2022	0	0	0	0	0
6/28/2022	0	0	0	0	0
7/05/2022	0	0	0	0	0
7/13/2022	0.35 ± 0.06	0	0	0	0
7/19/2022	0.57 ± 0.06	0.25 ± 0.06	0	0	0
07/28/2022	0.55± 0.06	0	0	0	0
08/02/2022	0.8 ± 0.05	0.22 ± 0.05	0	0	0
08/09/2022	0.87 ± 0.04	0.17 ± 0.05	0	0	0
08/16/2022	0.77 ± 0.06	0.38 ± 0.06	0	0	0
08/23/2022	0.82 ± 0.05	0.23 ± 0.06	0.03 ± 0.02	0	0.72 ± 0.13
08/27/2022	0.88 ± 0.04	0.33 ± 0.06	0.02 ± 0.02	0	0.45 ± 0.06
09/02/2022	0.68 ± 0.06	0.27 ± 0.06	0.07 ± 0.03	0	0.23 ± 0.06
09/09/2022	0.72 ± 0.06	0.28 ± 0.06	0.02 ± 0.02	0.02 ± 0.02	0.40 ± 0.06
09/16/2022	0.62± 0.06	0.27± 0.06	0.12± 0.04	0.85± 0.17	0.77 ± 0.06
09/23/2022	0.62 ± 0.06	0.37 ± 0.06	0.07 ± 0.03	0.78 ± 0.16	0.62 ± 0.06

This article was posted in Berries and tagged berry, Christelle Guédot, day-neutral strawberry, disease, DNS, DNS Organic, insects, Leslie Holland, organic, Organic Day-Neutral Strawberry Production, Organic production, organic strawberries, Rachel O’Neill Lewis, Strawberries, strawberry.