Chillicothe strawberry farm won't have a crop this year because of fungal disease

Yahoo

11-03-2025

Blooms and Berries Farm Market near Cincinnati has canceled its annual Strawberry Days this year because of a lack of the fruit.
But it's worse for Welch Farms in Chillicothe. The pick-your-own strawberry farm won't have a crop at all this year because it can't get the plants, it said in a Facebook post.
"We are not sure what the future will hold for the industry," Welch Farms writes in their post. "Please say a prayer for all strawberry growers."
Disease is making it a challenge for Ohio farms to get healthy strawberry plants this year.
Are strawberries going the way of eggs? Due to bird flu, eggs have seen shortages and price increases.
Here's what to know.
Welch Farms "focuses on providing high quality, fresh strawberries to the local community," according to its website. The family-run farm has been growing strawberries since 2005, and allows customers access to the fields so they can pick their own.
On Facebook, Welch Farms wrote that they can't get disease-free strawberry plants this year, so they've decided to not have a crop.
We have some sad news. As you may have heard there was a shortage of strawberry plants for this season due to a newer...
Posted by Welch Farms, LLC on Wednesday, March 5, 2025
"We want to thank everyone who has supported us over the years," the farm wrote. "[Your] support means more to us than you can know."
Meanwhile, in the Cincinnati suburb of Loveland, Blooms and Berries Farm Market was forced to cancel its annual Strawberry Days event this year due to a lack of produce.
Last August, Blooms and Berries was set to receive eight acres of strawberry plants, the farm wrote on Facebook, but was informed, "like thousands of other farms," that healthy plants were not available. That forced them to cancel the strawberry event.
2025 Strawberry Crop Update - we have some tough news...It's no secret that farming can be hard…I mean really hard....
Posted by Blooms And Berries Farm Market on Tuesday, March 4, 2025
"It was, and is, heartbreaking as our community, our team and our family count on the strawberry crop each spring," the farm wrote.
In its place, Blooms and Berries will hold Blackberry Days from July 12-20.
'We've got to do something fun for our community, for our team, and blackberries was an obvious next choice,' Blooms and Berries' Emily Probst told Fox19. 'We've done blackberries for several years now, but we're making an event out of it and shifting our attention this way.'
Welch Farms confirmed in comments on its Facebook post that the strawberry plant shortage is being caused by neopestalotiopsis, which is also called Neo-P. The aggressive fungal infection has hit strawberry growers across the southeast and is spreading, according to media reports.
The fungus, which was first identified in Ohio in 2021, has resulted in significant crop loss in the state, Melanie L. Lewis Ivey, plant pathology professor at the Ohio State University, wrote in the October 2024 newsletter "Ohio Fruit News," produced by the OSU Extension.
"As many strawberry producers are aware, obtaining disease free plants this year has been very challenging," Lewis Ivey wrote. "Nurseries have been canceling orders or have been telling growers that they can purchase plants at their own risk."
No cultivated varieties of strawberry are resistant to the fungus, she wrote, which has also been identified in blueberries in Ohio and grapevines elsewhere. Neopestalotiopsis spreads rapidly in cool and wet conditions, and infected plants should be destroyed and not composted.
As a result of the fungus, strawberry shortages are expected this year, Lewis Ivey said in an email Monday. Many growers have reduced their strawberry plantings or are not planting at all.
Greenhouses are equally at risk, she said. Since their strawberry plantings are sourced from the same supplies as field growers, they pose the same risk of a reduced supply.
And, like with eggs, shoppers will likely see higher strawberry prices because of it.
"Due to these shortages, berry prices are likely to rise," Lewis Ivey said Monday, "and U-pick operations may not open."
The avian flu strain H5N1, first identified in the U.S. in late 2021, has led to the death of millions of egg-laying chickens in the U.S., including more than eight million in Ohio — either from infection or culling of flocks, USA TODAY reports. It has sickened more than 65 people over the past year and led to the death of one Louisiana resident in January.
Because of it, egg prices have continued to rise, with the average price of a dozen large Grade A eggs hitting an all-time high in the U.S. in January, up 15% to $4.95, according to NerdWallet, citing data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
And that price is expected to climb even higher. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently released a report predicting egg prices will increase 41.1% this year, per USA TODAY.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Disease causing strawberry shortage, price increase. Chillicothe farm affected