Leaf from June bearing strawberry with deformed stem
As an avid gardener, I am always interested in other people’s gardens, especially how the same plants that I have can look different under the growing conditions that exist in their yards.
A few days ago, one of sister’s noticed that some of her June bearing strawberry plants had weird leaf stems that looked curved and then flattened, almost as if there was a bug growing in the stem. She cut open one of the stems, found nothing and brought me a leaf to demonstrate. She was concerned that perhaps her berry plants had contracted a virus or disease that could spread, and asked if I thought she should dig out and dispose of all the plants with the weird stems. Interestingly, those same plants had produced a lot of berries this year.
I had no idea what was wrong with her plants and when we looked on the web for strawberry plant deformities, we found nothing that fit. So, we are posting this blog in hopes that someone will recognize what the problem is and let us know what should be done.