Relationship of Lygus Infestations and Fruit Size in Strawberry

Jul 21, 2022

By Mark Bolda

While we are all familiar with the fruit twisting and "monkey facing" caused by lygus bugs in strawberry fruit, we may have been kept unaware of other possible effects of these pests because of low treatment efficacy. Since I am working with an insecticide (as yet, unregistered) with very high and long lasting suppression of lygus bugs, I am now able to compare, side by side, what is going in berries with lots of lygus and berries with very few to no lygus.

Outside of the giant reductions in twisted fruit and marvelous maintenance of yield by this insecticide, I am also finding that fruit size, outside of those which are already twisted, is also benefiting from a low lygus presence. Dividing plot fruit weight by the number harvested revealed that this is indeed the case. If you think about it, it makes sense since lygus nymphal feeding on the flower results in lessened achene ("seed") formation, and we know for a fact that smaller fruit have less achenes - you can easily check this for yourself.

Apparently, not all of the failed achenes caused by lygus feeding result in fruit twisting, it's looking like some of the failures just end up making the fruit smaller in size. See graphic number 2 below.

lygus feeding result in fruit twisting

Comparison of average fruit size from July 18 harvest. Difference is statistically significant.

Comparison of average fruit size from July 18 harvest. Difference is statistically significant.

Source : ucanr.edu

Video: EP 73 Diversity is Resiliency – Stories of Regeneration Part 6

During the growing season of 2023 as summer turned into fall, the Rural Routes to Climate Solutions podcast and Regeneration Canada were on the final leg of the Stories of Regeneration tour. After covering most of the Prairies and most of central and eastern Canada in the summer, our months-long journey came to an end in Canada’s two most western provinces around harvest time.

This next phase of our journey brought us to Cawston, British Columbia, acclaimed as the Organic Farming Capital of Canada. At Snowy Mountain Farms, managed by Aaron Goddard and his family, you will find a 12-acre farm that boasts over 70 varieties of fruits such as cherries, apricots, peaches, plums, pears, apples, and quince. Aaron employs regenerative agriculture practices to cultivate and sustain living soils, which are essential for producing fruit that is not only delicious but also rich in nutrients.