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Fruit & Orchards

Whats wrong with my strawberry sprout?

16 years ago

Can anyone help me identify what is wrong with my strawberry sprouts?

I have two alpine strawberry sprouts that already have their true leaves, each sprout has four leaves. This problem started last week I noticed that one of the true leaves looked a little burnt around the edges. It turned into a dark yellow color. I thought that it may be sunburn so I made sure to keep the plant out of direct sunlight. Despite that, the leaf still continued to wither. The entire leaf just turned yellow and wilted. Then I noticed another one of leaves starting to yellow and wilt as well. During this entire time I watered my sprouts daily, gave it sunlight but not direct sunlight. The sprouts sit in a west facing window. Oddly enough, it is just the true leaves that have this problem the sprout leaves look very healthy.

I have noticed the stems have a little bit of white on them. I'm not sure what it is, it is certainly not mold, none of the leaves have this only the stems.

I'm not sure what kind of problem my sprouts may have. I looked up the type of diseases a strawberry plant may have and none of them really fit my case. Could this be the quality of water I use? I just use water from the faucet. Could I be over watering my sprouts?

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Comments (5)

paulc_gardener
16 years ago
A strawberry plant is very hardy. They have large crown just on top of the roots. This crown has to be planted just on top of the surface. The have long roots and would need to be in a pot at least 6 inches deep. My real question is why are they not outside?
makalu_gw
16 years ago
That sounds like a lot of water for sprouts ... I'd cut back to a deep watering every few days and let the top of the soil dry out between watering. You didn't say if this was happening as you were trying to harden them off but if so, you might have some sunburn issues if you're having the plants go directly from artificial to natural light too quickly.
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Someone else mentioned to me that tap water with chlorine can cause this. If you look at the edges they are not only brown but a blueish/purple. That could be over fertilization or most likely chlorine/chloromine in the water. I dont know though, that is only what I have heard/read. Mine have begun to do the same thing but in only one pot that I fertilized. The other non fertilized pot is fine. I do know that I have some chlorine in my water, not much though but enough to kill most of my seedlings.
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Jean very well could be right in assessing under-watering as the cause, but if the leaves had never wilted, only to recover turgidity later in the day (evening) as the dark cycle gained prevalence, over-watering and/or a high level of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil solution would be the more likely cause. Al
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mini_garden
Original Author
16 years ago
paulc_gardener - My sprouts are still very small, they're not yet an inch tall. I thought they needed to be at least three inches tall before planting?

makalu - Actually I wasn't trying to harden them off, they've been growing in natural light all along. I'll try to water them less.

Thanks!
paulc_gardener
16 years ago
I don't know where you bought your sprouts but when they are dormant in bundles at the store, There will be just the crown and some roots. They don't have to be 3 inches tall to plant. If the ground is not frozen, it's time to plant.
fruitgirl
16 years ago
Just to clarify here for some people, the OP has started some alpine strawberries from seeds, so the situation is quite different from dormant bareroot plants.

Anyway, I also think that you're overwatering them, and that's why you have the yellowing leaves.

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