STRAWBERRY PRODUCTION IN SERBIA AND SOME ECONOMICALLY IMPORTANT DISEASES

The average production of strawberry in Serbia for 2005-2010 was about 35,000 t from about 8,000 ha. More than a half of the production is for fresh market and the rest is sold as frozen fruit. Less than 3,000 t is exported, mainly to Russia and Slovenia. Most of the producers have rather low average yield of 4.3 t/ha. An average field is also small, about 0.2 ha. The dominant cultivars are ‘Senga Sengana’, ‘Favette’, ‘Marmolada’, and ‘Elsanta’, while cultivars ‘Clery’, ‘Alba’, ‘Qeen Elisa’, ‘Madeleine’, ‘Arosa’, and ‘Antea’ have been introduced recently and are under expansion now. Over 95% of the total production is in the open field, mostly without mulch cover. Less than 5% is in protected cultivation. Inadequate planting material, long exploitation of plantations, lack of irrigation systems, as well as damage caused by late spring frosts, pests and pathogens are the main reasons for low yield. Diseases are an important limiting factor. To establish more appropriate disease management, over the last several years, occurrence of fungal diseases in open strawberry fields in Serbia was monitored and the causal agents were isolated and investigated. Gray mold, caused by the fungus Botrytis cinerea, was the major fruit rot disease of strawberries. In some cases, the fungus diseases caused 50% or more reduction in yield. It was most damaging to strawberries during periods of prolonged wet weather during the bloom and the fruiting seasons. Phytophthora cactorum and Colletotrichum acutatum were not observed on fruit. The occurrence of common leaf spot, caused by Mycosphaerella fragariae, was recorded in all fields, whereas Phomopsis obscurans (causal agent of leaf blight and fruit rot) was rarely observed. All the pathogens were isolated, identified based on conidial and colonial morphology, and their ecological characteristics were studied.