(05/23/25) HAMMOND, La. — When a Tangipahoa Parish strawberry farmer contacted LSU AgCenter horticulture agent Mary Helen Ferguson about his crop loss, at first glance, she observed symptoms that alone could have been related to a number of common diseases. It wasn’t until she took a closer look that she found something more concerning.

Neopestalotiopsis leaf, fruit and crown disease was first detected in Louisiana in 2022. While it is uncertain how the disease arrived, the pathogen is known to infect both above- and below-ground plant parts, including leaves, fruit and crowns, eventually leading to plant collapse if left unchecked.

Ferguson said that within a day of the farmer bringing the problem to her attention, information was sent to her AgCenter colleagues about the disease, its symptoms and how to manage it.

In Louisiana, the strawberry industry has a gross farm value of $11.6 million, with most of the production concentrated in Tangipahoa and Livingston parishes. The disease spots that extend to the fruit make it unsellable.

Since the discovery, an AgCenter team — consisting of Ferguson, plant doctor Raj Singh, Livingston Parish horticulture agent Clark Robertson, plant pathologist Chien-Yu Huang and precision agriculture expert Congliang Zhou — was selected for the 2025 Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry Specialty Crop Block Grant of $74,277 for their project, “Improving disease detection, forecasting and developing the best management practices to mitigate Neopestalotiopsis leaf, fruit and crown disease of strawberry.”

According to Singh, the funding is crucial to controlling the spread of the disease on multiple fronts.

“The research will focus on providing Louisiana growers with timely and accurate pre-planting Neopestalotiopsis detection in strawberry planting stock,” he said. “This will be coupled with improved disease forecasting methods using artificial intelligence and incorporating best management practices — including use of plant-derived novel antimicrobial molecules — to mitigate yield losses.”

Along with Singh, who led the effort, Ferguson and Robertson also put together a Neopestalotiopsis leaf, fruit and crown disease fact sheet to assist farmers in what to look for and how to take preventative measures to mitigate the chances of crops being infected, including paying close attention to planting stock, like buying clean plants from reputable nurseries.

In addition, producers should implement crop rotation and fungicides and avoid planting strawberries in fields where they have been planted for at least two years after the last crop. As with most forms of disease management, a combination of precautions is more effective than just one.

Robertson is cautiously optimistic about getting control of the disease but said he fully understands strawberry producers’ worries.

“Farmers are concerned about the long-term impact of this disease to the strawberry industry in Louisiana,” he said. “It has been another challenge for them to overcome to continue to produce quality Louisiana strawberries, but we are optimistic information learned through this grant research will provide answers for better disease-management strategies for Louisiana farmers.”

Ferguson said the strawberry breeding program at the University of Florida, from which some varieties grown in Louisiana come, is also working on developing varieties resistant to the disease. But, she added, variety development can take years, and even resistant plants often can get the disease at some level.

“We’ve learned more about how to manage it, and most growers have been able to continue producing decent crops, but the industry is still experiencing more yield loss than we’d like to see,” she said. “Growers will need to continue to be diligent about identifying diseased plants early, following good sanitation practices and making appropriate fungicide applications.”

Diseased strawberry fruits exhibiting light brown sunken lesions caused by Neopestalotiopsis species. Photo by Raj Singh/LSU AgCenter

Older leaf spots exhibiting tiny black fruiting bodies of the pathogen in the center of an older leaf spot caused by Neopestalotiopsis species. Photo by Raj Singh/LSU AgCenter

Dark brown internal rotting of strawberry crown caused by Neopestalotiopsis species. Photo by Raj Singh/LSU AgCenter