Scrapbook image

Your scrapbook

Forgotten your details?

Enter your email address and we'll send your username and password to you

London

  • Sunny/ClearToday
    8°C/20°C
  • FairTomorrow
    10°C/24°C
  • See Gardeners'
    7-day forecast

Our Gardeners' 7-day forecast warns you of changing weather conditions (including frost, high wind and drought) and suggests actions to take to protect your plants.

Advertisement

Problem solving

raspberries infected with grey mould

Symptoms

A thick layer of grey mould develops on soft fruits.

Find it on: raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, loganberries, other fruit

Time to act: summer

Grey mould on soft fruits

Just as your fruits are beginning to ripen, grey mould (a fungus called botrytis) can ruin them. Small brown spots form on the skin, then spread over the whole fruit, turning it soft and brown. As the fruit deteriorates, a fuzzy grey layer of mould develops. The spores produced by the fungus can spread to other plants, infecting them through damaged skin. However, it's most infectious at flowering time, when spores, blown by the wind, enter open flowers and lie dormant until the fruits begin to swell.

Solution

Organic

The fungus survives on plant debris, so to reduce the risk of infection keep the soil clear around your soft fruit canes, and remove any damaged fruits.

Advertiser Links

Subscribe to the magazine

July edition of Gardeners' World Magazine

In July...
The July issue is on sale from 27 June. Subscribe today and receive the next three issues of Gardeners' World magazine for just £1.

The UK's number 1 gardening magazine

TV & Radio

Television icon

What's on this week

Find out what gardening programmes are on TV and radio this week. And read more about the Gardeners' World programme.

Offer

Planter

Order five lavenders and only pay p&p.

BBC Magazines

© BBC Magazines Ltd. BBC Worldwide Ltd.

The BBC Gardeners' World Magazine word mark and logo are trademarks of BBC Worldwide Ltd.

BBC Magazines is owned by the BBC and our profits are returned to the BBC for the benefit of the licence-fee payer.