Strawberries and Caneberries

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Stunted discolored plant. Excavation and partitioning of the crown gave no sign of disease.
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Root Asphyxiation in Strawberry

April 11, 2018
By Mark P Bolda
Interesting farm call here that at first piqued my attention as a possibly serious disease situation but in the end turned out to not be. See the photos below. Affected strawberry plants presented with discolored leaves and stunted growth typical of nutrient deficiency or viral infection.
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Photo 1: Fusarium affected strawberry plants, picture taken April 5, 2018.
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Fusarium Strikes Early in 2018

April 6, 2018
By Mark P Bolda
Waaaay too early to be seeing Fusarium infecting strawberry plants, but here it is. I was contacted two weeks ago by the grower who was seeing some plant collapse in his field (Photo 1) and had him submit samples and then went out personally to check it out.
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Dream on. Photo Growing Produce.
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Robots Don't Do Squishy

March 25, 2018
By Mark P Bolda
Doing some more weekend reading in "Machine Platform Crowd" the popular and well quoted tract on what we are looking at this second phase of the machine age.
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Peristenus digoneutis laying an egg in a plant bug nymph. Scott Bauer USDA/ARS.
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Lygus bugs in the Sunday Sentinel

March 18, 2018
By Mark P Bolda
An interesting piece of local journalism this morning by Katrina Hunter, who has worked in agriculture on the Central Coast for a number of years. I remember speaking with her on some background for this article. No disputing Lygus bugs in strawberries are a pretty major deal.
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'Sweet King' , one of the most well known strawberries in Japan. Average fruit size of 45 g makes it a contender with our early CA fruit.
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Japanese Olympic Curling Team Caught Up in Familiar Strawberry Political Flap

March 16, 2018
By Mark P Bolda
The recent strawberry industry earthquake around the Japanese Olympic curling team declaring (on camera no less) that the strawberries served by their South Korean hosts as a snack during the games were "surprisingly delicious" should sound pretty familiar to any California strawberry industry insid...
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