3 days ago
Why strawberry season is coming to an early end in Northern Virginia
BEALETON, Va. (DC News Now) — It's a springtime favorite: picking sweet strawberries at area farms. But this season is over almost before it even started.
In Fauquier County at Messick's Farm Market, owner Jimmy Messick said this strawberry season was not one to remember.
'Out of the 12 or 13 years that we've been growing, this is the worst year of growing that I have experienced,' he told DC News Now.
Messick said in a normal season, each plant produces about one pound of strawberries. This year, it's about 20% of that.
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He attributes it primarily to a fungal disease called Neopestalotiopsis, or Neo-P. That, combined with a warmer and wetter month of May, has cut strawberry picking season short. In certain years, it can last until late June or the first week of July. This year, it ended in mid-May.
'The brown splotches are starting to invade into the leaf,' Messick said, identifying the fungus. 'Pretty soon it kills the leaf and eventually the plant.'
Messick said his plan for the future is to try new varieties of strawberries in September for the fall season, hoping some of them are less susceptible to Neo-P.
'Anything that's good and sweet and fruity, you're going to have pests that want to eat it as well,' he said. 'But this new [disease] is something that we haven't learned to cope with yet.'
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