michiele:

Those are the eggs of an insect; perhaps pillbugs, strawberry beetles, or something like that. It can't be good. Remove every leaf like that that you see and burn them or send them out in the trash.

If your strawberries are not yet producing, you may want to use something like a Safer's Soap type insecticide or a dilute solution of horticultural oil on the plants. You have the makings of a major infestation of something going on there.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

"Orange and powdery" describes eggs? Really? I'd suspect rust, a fungus disease.

That said, I've never seen rust on strawberries. According to what info I can find, rust is rare on edible strawberries but common on Duchesnea (ornamental strawberry).

So, tell us more about the orange stuff. Is it truly powdery? If so, do you see anything (spots; discoloration) on the top side in areas which correspond to the orange areas below?

Or is the orange stuff discrete things which could be a group of eggs?

From having grown up on a PYO strawberry farm, I've seen rust on strawberries and I'd have to agree with the RUST guestimate,,, and if it is so, it is NOT very good. I'd pull the affected plants (roots and all) and any loose foliage and dispose of them in a wrapped plastic bag.

I've seen that stuff on tree leaves and had assumed it was a form of rust. I used Google image search and found the following:

{{gwi:101399}}

This is a rose leaf with rust.

If there are only a few leaves with this I would just pull all of them off.

Scott

Yes, after searching around about it, I agree that it is rust. I pulled the leaves and will watch the plants. I have 2 plants with it. The rust was on the old leaves closest to the ground. The new growth looks great and very healthy so I am not going to pull the plants yet.

These were strawberry plants that I transplanted from another area in the yard (back in early March) so they were weak to begin with. On top of that, we had a late freeze in April so they didn't like that much either. Those leaves were basically just laying on the wet ground for a month or so. I will keep an eye on them for more rust.

Thanks for all the help:)

Rust is systemic. Pull the whole plant, NOW.

It will come back and SPREAD, it is just a matter of time.

Ok, I will pull the plants. Thanks.

Well this is Jean and Kurt 1, Jellyman 0. I thought I saw little round shapes in the orange material, which is what misled me to the egg theory. But they are apparently orange rust pustules. I would probably get rid of all the plants and replant with new stock in a different area. This is one instance in which the advice to start with certified disease free plants applies. There are limits to transplanting older plants.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

I really wonder what rust it is. I did some diggin on the 'net, and can't find any mention of rust on strawberries in the US.
Curious.

It was said: "I really wonder what rust it is. I did some diggin on the 'net, and can't find any mention of rust on strawberries in the US."

I found my reference to rust on strawberries in the "Compendium of Strawberry Disease" from the American Phytopathological Society, the author J. L. Maaas, USDA, Beltsville, MD.

As I said, that source stated it was rare. They cited the disease as in Florida.

That said, kurtg, from MD, reported seeing rust while growing up on a PYO strawberry farm. So, unless kurtg is smoking something funny, I'd say that strawberry rust does occur in the US but perhaps it's not widely spread enough to be reported. (Just a thought.)

Boy. Info is limited. But here's what I found the past half hour.

Several UK and European sites lists the rust Phragmidium fragaria.

And Wikipedia lists leaf arust (Phragmidium potentillae = Frommea obtuse) but doesnÂt discuss where it's a problem.

Then, several historical writings -- one from Wisconsin, the other from where I donÂt recall (sigh) -- discuss strawberry rust as a problem.

I tried looking it up also and didn't find much on it either. I guess the strawberries really didn't enjoy being transplanted and then frozen right when they were thinking about establishing.

I pulled all the ones that had any spots on them. Not too big of a deal since the newer strawberries are doing just fine. Thanks for all the help.

The strawberry compendium is the one small fruit one that I don't have! I understood that it's rare, and I definitely agree with you that it's not important enough to be widely known.

Nothing funny here, though the funny stuff grew wild on on uncles PYO berry farm in NE. "We don't charge for weeds"

I only recall seeing rust 2 times on the Strawberries in the 25 years of growing them on our farm.

I believe we had rust more often on blackberries, but understand that there are specific strains of "rust" for different plants. My understanding was that the fungus overwinters in the crown.

kurtg, you are correct that rust is quite common on blackberries, orange rust in particular. Orange rust is indeed systemic and cannot be gotten rid of once the plant has it. There are many different types of rust; yellow rust, Phragmidium rust (a new rust on evergreen blackberries on the west coast), cedar-apple rust, etc, etc, etc.