The Cal Poly Strawberry Center hosted the 3^rd annual Strawberry Field Day on July 18^th. Over 250 growers, PCA’s, students, and industry members gathered to learn about the center’s programs in entomology and plant pathology. Here are just a few of the key messages from the event, visit the Strawberry Center website for the presentation handouts: https://link.calstrawberry.com/r41

How to tell the difference between “catfacing” caused by Lygus vs Poor Pollination

If the catfaced fruit has small achenes (seeds) this is caused by poor pollination (photo A).

If the catfaced fruit has normal sized achenes (seeds) this is from lygus feeding (photo B).

What is impacting these plants?

Is it Fusarium? Maybe Verticillium? Possibly Macrophomina?....it’s hard to tell! To be sure, get it diagnosed.

The Cal Poly Strawberry Center offers free disease diagnosis for growers. For more information and instructions on sampling protocol visit: https://link.calstrawberry.com/qs4