Symptoms Young blossoms are very susceptible to infection. Light gray masses of dusty spores soon appear and are easily dislodged and carried by air currents to other blossoms. Such infections are most common in well protected areas of the plant, where the humidity is high and air movement is poor. Click on image for larger version Figure 1. Strawberry with Botrytis Fruit Rot.
Infected berries turn light brown but remain firm.
This fungus produces a velvety gray growth with powdery dry spores. Berries resting on soil and touching another decayed berry or a dead leaf in dense foliage are commonly infected. Immature berries may develop infection, but they become more susceptible as they ripen. The disease is often not detected until berry picking time, when many soft, brown, rotted fruits are found. Pickers handling infected fruits will spread infection to healthy fruit, causing good berries to become a rotted mass within 48 hours after being picked.