UK: Seeking grower help with crumbly and malformed fruit in raspberry

Crumbly fruit condition (CFC) and Malformed fruit disorder (MFD) in raspberry have been a recurring problem for raspberry growers for some years and result in serious crop and financial losses.

Apart from certain viruses, which are known to adversely affect fruit shape when present in a crop, it is still not known exactly what triggers these conditions in raspberry.

Many causes have been suggested, but further clarification is needed to improve our understanding of how to develop future research.

To this end, Luca Scolari, a PhD student at the James Hutton Institute is undertaking an industry grower survey which has been designed to help the scientists there to better distinguish between CFC and MFD. It is also hoped that the survey will provide information about worldwide spread, susceptible varieties and agronomic practices which might lead to these conditions.

All data collected will help to identify what triggers both CRF and MFD and help the James Hutton Institute to develop new research strategies to tackle the problem. We therefore encourage all raspberry growers to help out by completing the on-line survey at: http://surveys.hutton.ac.uk/index.php/365645?newtest=Y&lang=en