Disease-Free Plants for Management of Strawberry Anthracnose Crown Rot. T. B. McInnes, Former Graduate Student, Department of Plant Pathology and Crop Physiology, Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station, Louisiana State University Agriculture Center, Baton Rouge 70803. L. L. Black, and J. M. Gatti, Jr. Professor, and Research Associate, Department of Plant Pathology and Crop Physiology, Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station, Louisiana State University Agriculture Center, Baton Rouge 70803. Plant Dis. 76:260-264. Accepted for publication 12 September 1991. Copyright 1992 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-76-0260.

Anthracnose crown rot (ACR), caused by Colletotrichum fragariae, limited both plant and fruit production in strawberry summer nursery beds and production fields in Louisiana from 1986 to 1989 on most farms that used locally grown plants. Pathogen-free plants derived from tissue culture and increased in northeast Louisiana were provided to growers in southeast Louisiana for establishment of summer nursery beds. The pathogen-free strawberry plants remained free of ACR in summer nursery beds planted apart from other beds established with locally grown transplants. Once the pathogen was introduced into summer nursery beds (June-October) disease spread of ACR was rapid, but there was no evidence of disease spread in production fields (November–May). The only plants that died from ACR in production fields were those that were already infected when they were transplanted to the field.