This fruit rot is soft but not sloppy, unlike the firm fruit lesions of black spot. It is an increasingly important cause of fruit loss. This disease can spread on infected runners and a regular spray program should begin soon after setting out using a registered fungicide. Leaf blight has similar symptoms to leaf blotch and is often confused with it. The disease usually appears in late summer on older leaves and is not considered to be a major problem, although mother plants may be weakened through this late leaf loss, reducing crop growth in the second year.
Powdery mildew disfigures leaves with a white powdery coat on the underside.
Infected fruit may crack where the infection causes a hardening of the skin of the developing fruit. Grey mould is a fruit rotting disease that shows up initially as light brown spots rapidly extending to the whole fruit, which becomes rotten and covered with a powdery grey mould. Fruit in contact with the soil are at particular risk of infection but early fruit infection can occur if the spores blow or are splashed onto the flower. Hygiene is the first line of defence as it is for most strawberry diseases. Leak is a watery soft rot of ripe fruit, usually associated with handling damage.