Leaf Spot on my Strawberry Plants

Corr...I went to water and have a little inspect of my very young Albion Strawberry Plants today and noticed that on one leaf on one of the plants there were a couple of dark spots.  Now, I am a very inexperienced gardener, but my instinct said eeeeeekkkkk!

Anyway, after a little google, I believe this plant has the beginning of Leaf Spot Mycosphaerella fragariae.  This is a fungal disease that can kill the leaves but not the fruit and appears as dark spots 3-8mm in diameter.  Leaf Spot first appears on the upper leaves of the strawberry plant, but can also spread to the fruits later on in the year. It is spread by water and heat and young open leaves are especially vulnerable to this fungal disease - note to self, avoid splashing water onto the young plants when watering the compost.

So, I decided as it was only one leaf to pick that off and then treat the remaining plants with a

Natural Homemade Fungicidal Spray simply consisting of

250ml Water
4 tsp of Apple Cider Vinegar
4 drops of Rosemary Essential Oil

Both the Apple Cider Vinegar and the Rosemary Essential Oil have anti fungal properties, I put this into a Spray Bottle and lightly misted the top and underside of the leaves.  The apple cider vingear will also help to preserve your mix, but to be on the safe side, store in the fridge in between uses.

By the way, I did try a Neem and Water Infusion of (1 tsp of neem to 250ml of water) first as neem powder also has anti fungal properties, but even when strained through a sieve the mixture would not pump through the mist spray....a little lesson learned there!  Another alternative is Baking Soda mixed with water, again I didn't try this because if I had trouble getting the neem powder infusion to pump through the spray, then I guess a baking soda mix would be the same.  NB If you do choose baking soda and use it regularly, it can start to reduce the plants ability to absorb vital nutrients from the soil.

I also found a schedule for treating the plants
1) First spray should be made in Spring just before the first blossoms - well in my plants case, I had to do this earlier
2) Spray Everbearing types (which mine are) at 7 to 10 day intervals during the first fruiting periods.  For the rest of the season, the spray intervals can be lengthened to 2 to 3 week intervals.
For June bearing plants, repeat the fungicide applications every 7 to 10 days through to final harvest. Pin It