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mustard seed meal soil amendment, early
season and season total fruit yields were
not different between the treatments.
Neither did the addition of Actinovate
in these treatments result in significantly
higher early or season total yields of fruit.
Notably however, the addition of mustard
seed meal or Actinovate to plots not fumigated
with either the grower standard
or Dominus resulted in significantly higher
yields both in the early season and the
whole season than those plots left alone.
In sum, in our own UCCE trials, I have
not observed much in the way of defense
against pathogens with any of these biological
fungicides, but have observed early
plant response in strawberry from some
of them, in particular with the use Actinovate,
(Streptomyces lydicus). Generally,
plant response looks like significantly
larger plants than those not treated in the
first few months after transplant, followed
by two months of significantly higher
fruit production, usually in the range of
10 to 20 percent than in an otherwise
untreated crop. Later on in the season,
from June on in strawberries, the effect of
these materials has not been noticeable.
To be clear, now that we have done
research on a slate of biological control
products for the last three years, I will
state that these materials should NOT be
considered as alternatives to our current
fumigation and other soil pre-plant
preparation practices. Rather we should
be seeing these materials as being able
to play a role in improving plant performance,
especially in the early part of the
season. With that in mind, I encourage
growers to test them and find out for
themselves which materials may or may
not work for them in their particular
situation.
The above article has been a description
of the functionality of biological
fungicides in improving strawberry plant
performance in strawberry. While these
materials are not pesticides, one needs to
obey the instructions given on the label
for each product, and consult the manufacturer
or county Agricultural Commissioner
should questions arise. If you have
further questions on this topic, or any
other topics concerning strawberry, raspberry
or blackberry production, please
contact Mark Bolda at UCCE Santa Cruz.
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Page 12 Progressive Crop Consultant March/April 2017