Preplant Fungicide Dips of Strawberry Transplants to Control Anthracnose Caused by Colletotrichum acutatum in California

Bare-root daughter plants of strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) were inoculated with Colletotrichum acutatum, the cause of crown rot, root rot, and fruit rot of strawberry in California. Plants were subsequently dipped in fungicide solutions or washed with running tap water immediately before planting in Summer and Fall 2002 and Fall 2004. Fungicide treatments reduced plant dieback by up to 92% in fruit production fields. Plants treated with azoxystrobin, the premixtures of boscalid + pyraclostrobin and cyprodinil + fludioxonil had 50% to 92% reduction in disease incidence, increased canopy size by more than 100%, and produced significantly higher marketable yields in all planting dates than the inoculated plants that were not treated with the fungicides. Chlorothalonil and captan also significantly reduced disease incidence but did not consistently increase marketable yield compared with the untreated, inoculated control. The effects of propiconazole and trifloxystrobin were inconsistent in reducing disease incidence. Water wash did not reduce root and crown disease incidence but significantly increased marketable yields by 13% over the untreated, inoculated controls in one of two plantings. No pretransplant treatments provided protection against fruit and foliar infection; thus, in-season fungicide applications would be necessary for disease control in commercial production fields if environmental conditions favored disease development.