Fruit size and catfacing

In case you missed it, Mark Bolda and I co-authored a blog on Mark’s Strawberries and Caneberries blog on Feb 17, 2025. The topic is fruit development as it relates to fertilization and development of the achenes and fruit. Catfacing results when fertilization isn’t uniform but it may also affect fruit size without causing catfacing. Check it out.

**Figure 1.** Well formed fruit (left) and catfaced fruit (right). Malformed, or “catfaced”, fruit results when fertilization is incomplete and can be caused by anything that disrupts the fertilization process (e.g., Lygus feeding, temperature extremes, moisture extremes, etc.).

Author

Gerald Holmes

Gerald Holmes is the founding Director of the Strawberry Center at Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo. He holds a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology and has spent his career in applied agricultural science addressing issues important to farmers.