Can someone please help me figure what's happening to my strawberry plants?

[gwen]

For context: I have 3 different strawberry pots, it's their 1st winter. They were very healthy, produced some strawberries until end of october, then they started getting some yellow spots on the leaves that turn fully yellow, that then dye out, so I remove them. One pot is particularly bad. I believed it was fungi potentially, so I spay a mixture of water and vinegar once a week, but it doesn't seem to be helping. I don't see any small insects or webbing, even when zooming in.

We have a lot of wind, and some pretty cold and dark days, but they are in a spot where they're fully exposed to the sun.

Can I save them? Thank you!! And Very happy holidays!

 

[Meadowlark]

Howdy.

My guess the answer to your question lies in the soil.

Strawberries need a rich, loamy, well-drained soil with a pH between 5.3 and 6.5.

What nutrients are available to the strawberries? Any fertilizers applied?

Vinegar is not a significant source of nutrients for plants. It primarily contains acetic acid, which can be harmful to plants if applied in high concentrations. Its ph is generally in the 2-3 range and weekly applications may be providing an acidic soil.

 

[gwen]

Howdy.

My guess the answer to your question lies in the soil.

Strawberries need a rich, loamy, well-drained soil with a pH between 5.3 and 6.5.

What nutrients are available to the strawberries? Any fertilizers applied?

Vinegar is not a significant source of nutrients for plants. It primarily contains acetic acid, which can be harmful to plants if applied in high concentrations. Its ph is generally in the 2-3 range and weekly applications may be providing an acidic soil.

Thank you! I don't use too much vinegar in the solution. I don't think it would be significant enough to make the soil that acidic.
I have a soil with compost at a ph of about 6. I have been using a fertiliser that's meant specifically for strawberry plants but I stopped using it once it got too cold, in the packaging it says to stop in november.
The pots are well drained with holes at the bottom and some clay balls. I water them once a week, since it's cold, but usually three times a week.

Should I keep using fertilizer? Lower the water rate? Or any other advice?

Thank you so much

 

[oldigrow]

I'm from Missouri the best strawberries i'v ever seen were grown on a flint rock shale hilltop. the person that grew them was a high school friend . he said just lift a rock and and cover the roots .

 

[Meadowlark]

Why apply vinegar weekly?

 

[gwen]

Why apply vinegar weekly?

It was mostly an anti-fungi thing, which I suspected at first, and found that water + a little vinegar would help with that. I did that 3 times only, and very little quantity.

 

[Meadowlark]

I'm going to flag @YumYum for ideas on your strawberries.

How about it @YumYum ?

@gwen ...vinegar is widely used as an organic herbicide

 

[Anniekay]

If it's coming into winter where you are, strawberry leaves turn color as the plant goes dormant for the winter, so nothing is wrong. Remove the bad leaves and mulch them heavily and they should be fine come spring.
Don't use vinegar as insecticide, use safer soap to get rid of bugs.
.

 

[gwen]

If it's coming into winter where you are, strawberry leaves turn color as the plant goes dormant for the winter, so nothing is wrong. Remove the bad leaves and mulch them heavily and they should be fine come spring.
Don't use vinegar as insecticide, use safer soap to get rid of bugs.
.

It's winter indeed, temps are pretty low between 8-0°C.
That's reassuring thank you.
Noted for the vinegar!

 

[gwen]

I'm going to flag @YumYum for ideas on your strawberries.

How about it @YumYum ?

@gwen ...vinegar is widely used as an organic herbicide

Noted! Thank you! That actually makes sense now that I think about it...

 

[yardiron]

It kind of looks like black spot fungus.

I'd either try Neem oil or maybe some baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), mixed with water, but back off the overall watering, keep the soil loose and not wet or compacted.
Strawberries here like loose, sandy soil that drains well.
Also, like AnnieKay said, get rid of the spotted leaves, pinch them off and get rid of them so they can't contaminate the rest of the plant,or other plants.

The goal is to make the soil less favorable to fungal growth.
Raising the PH and less moisture are what your looking to do but not so much you kill the strawberry plants either. Do not raise the PH above 6.2.

Vinegar can kill fungus but it also lowers the PH making the soil more likely to grow more fungus. Basically it kills that's already grown by lowering the PH of the current fungal growth but does not prevent further growth.
You will do pretty much the same thing by simply removing the affected leaves and raising the PH to the max the plants can tolerate which will make the soil less susceptible to fungal growth.

I'd also prune them for the winter so no leaves are in the dirt.

Make small changes and monitor them closely. It likely won't take much to find where they are happy.

Back when I grew strawberries, years ago, I planted about five rows about 12 meters long, I'd prep those rows with both sand and peat moss mixed with crushed egg shells, then I'd fertilize at the beginning of the growing season and again as they set fruit. They started bearing fruit around the start of April and would go well into June if the weather didn't turn hot too early. I'd dust the rows with eggs shells at the end of the growing season after they were established and each year it took less and less to keep the PH where it needed to be.

Adding the eggs shells gives them calcium and it raises the PH.

I'd only add ground or pulverized shells that had been washed and dried first.

 

[YumYum]

I don't know what is wrong but I see the lower leaves are very dark green which indicate a high nitrogen uptake by the plant. I have seen leaves turn yellow like that from too much ammonium, so maybe nitrogen toxicity. You can try to flush the potting mix out with distilled water to flush out the excess salts to start over.

You could also do the pour through method to get some leachate and test it with a pH and TDS tester. That will tell you alot with what is going on in the soil.

 

[gwen]

It kind of looks like black spot fungus.

I'd either try Neem oil or maybe some baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), mixed with water, but back off the overall watering, keep the soil loose and not wet or compacted.
Strawberries here like loose, sandy soil that drains well.
Also, like AnnieKay said, get rid of the spotted leaves, pinch them off and get rid of them so they can't contaminate the rest of the plant,or other plants.

The goal is to make the soil less favorable to fungal growth.
Raising the PH and less moisture are what your looking to do but not so much you kill the strawberry plants either. Do not raise the PH above 6.2.

Vinegar can kill fungus but it also lowers the PH making the soil more likely to grow more fungus. Basically it kills that's already grown by lowering the PH of the current fungal growth but does not prevent further growth.
You will do pretty much the same thing by simply removing the affected leaves and raising the PH to the max the plants can tolerate which will make the soil less susceptible to fungal growth.

I'd also prune them for the winter so no leaves are in the dirt.

Make small changes and monitor them closely. It likely won't take much to find where they are happy.

Back when I grew strawberries, years ago, I planted about five rows about 12 meters long, I'd prep those rows with both sand and peat moss mixed with crushed egg shells, then I'd fertilize at the beginning of the growing season and again as they set fruit. They started bearing fruit around the start of April and would go well into June if the weather didn't turn hot too early. I'd dust the rows with eggs shells at the end of the growing season after they were established and each year it took less and less to keep the PH where it needed to be.

Adding the eggs shells gives them calcium and it raises the PH.

I'd only add ground or pulverized shells that had been washed and dried first.

This is very insightful thank you! I'll try pruning them and adding crushed eggshells

 

[gwen]

I don't know what is wrong but I see the lower leaves are very dark green which indicate a high nitrogen uptake by the plant. I have seen leaves turn yellow like that from too much ammonium, so maybe nitrogen toxicity. You can try to flush the potting mix out with distilled water to flush out the excess salts to start over.

You could also do the pour through method to get some leachate and test it with a pH and TDS tester. That will tell you alot with what is going on in the soil.

Unfortunately I don't own a ph or TDS tester, as I only have a few potted plants and only started a few months ago.
Is there any way to test them without equipments?
Also could you give me more details about the pour through method?
Thank you very much

 

[YumYum]

You could just flush the soil. It usually fixes overfertilization in a potting mix. Just be sure to resume fertilization after that. As far as pH goes, watering with hard water will usually cause problems later on in a potting mix without some way to check the medias pH.