Abstract

During 1968-69 a survey of the incidence of strawberry pith necrosis and crown death was made on 69 plantations of the cv. Cambridge Favourite in E. and NE Scotland. Percentages of dead parent crowns in spring 1969 were positively correlated with mean pith necrosis scores in autumn 1968. Analyses of the percentages of dead crowns in relation to various site and management conditions showed that 11 factors were associated with significant differences in the severity of crown death. Because some of these factors were probably related to one another rather than directly to crown death, the independent effects of the factors which made large contributions to the variance were re-examined by the fitting constants method. This showed that the percentage of dead crowns increased with increasing age of the plantation, and that the only factor significantly associated with crown death in plantations of all ages was the parent material of the soil. Plantations growing on soils derived from Old Red Sandstone contained higher percentages of dead crowns than those on soils from other parent materials. The ways in which the parent material of the soil might affect the severity of crown death are discussed in relation to S deficiency. The effect on crown death of the type of simazine programme used for weed control is also discussed.