Efficacy of fungicides to manage anthracnose and gray mold incidence in strawberries 1999 Botrytis trial. Gray mold is the most common and consistent problem for our growers. For many growers, gray mold management includes use of fungicides. This report highlights that Elevate and Switch, both reduced risk fungicides, are effective Botryticides and can play an important role in gray mold management. Switch, but not Elevate, offered some suppression of anthracnose.
Anthracnose control is difficult because the disease can reach epidemic proportions in a short time.
Since most growers do not encounter problems, fungicides should be implemented only if there is a high risk of disease. However, the ability to predict disease incidence is difficult. In situations where disease pressure will occur, the strobilurins, with the exception of Sovran, offer disease suppression. The new reduced-risk fungicides evaluated in this study should prove to be valuable tools for our growers as a component of their gray mold and anthracnose management strategies. We plan to implement recommendations that will optimize the use of these new products and minimize risk of developing fungicide resistance in the pathogen populations.