Glyphosate and Strawberries don’t mix!

For the second spring in a row, we’ve been scratching our head about stunting and yellowing that we’re seeing in our trial strawberries.  Strawberries are incredibly sensitive to glyphosate, and after decades of seeing these symptoms crop up, Geoff smells glyphosate injury…..but how in the world did we get it?!  We haven't used glyphosate in the vicinity, and neither has the landowner.

What’s helpful in this case is that the same batches of plants we have planted in Lincoln are also in Auckland, and the Auckland trial is unaffected.  That means it’s got nothing to do with the plant source, but something has happened in the planting process.

Our working theory is that it was from one of our planters who borrowed gloves that Geoff had previously used while spraying glyphosate.  The pattern in the trial block fits this theory.

Notice the yellowing leaves growing at the centre of the plant, with stunting and a little twist. Note that cyclamen mites feeding causes stunted, thicken leaves with a little twist as well, but generally not the yellowing.

Who would have thought that contamination like this could have this result?  We planted at the end of May, and we’re seeing damage show up in August!

The problem with glyphosate when it gets into plants, is the persistence of it.  Symptoms of contamination like this can show up months later and make it difficult to work out what actually happened.

We have recently seen photos of plants like this in commercial beds.  We think that a bit of drift when field plant growers control weeds in their headlands or shelter belts, can sometimes contaminate nearby plants and not show up until next spring. So don’t be surprised to see an affected plant here and there.

Mostly the plants will grow out of it, but our data suggests that there is a yield affect and this can be quite dramatic in severe cases.  

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