Georgia now has one likely strawberry site with Neopestalotiopsis. There were several sites that were decimated by this disease last year, but this appearance is the first of 2021.
Symptoms and presumptive spores of the pathogen are showing up in this site, and the plants were obtained from a nursery in Canada that is known to have the pathogen. Symptomatic plants have leaf spots and are dying (20-30% loss so far).
Once the plants are in the ground, it is difficult if not impossible to prevent this disease from setting up permanent housekeeping; the pathogen can go to weeds and surrounding vegetation, so it becomes permanent in the area. To date, we have only seen the disease on plants that come from nurseries which are a source of the pathogen.
For more information:
University of Georgia
www.uga.edu