We posted last March about angular leaf spot and it’s back this year for a repeat performance. We got about two inches of rain yesterday afternoon and last night. This morning, the angular leaf spot showed so much bacterial ooze that it looked like someone with a bad sinus infection sneezed on the underside of the leaves! It’s not hard to imagine how the pathogen (Xanthomonas fragariae) gets spread on splashing water when you see it like this (Fig. 1). This ooze will soon dry, giving a lacquer-like sheen to the lesions (see Fig. 2 of last year’s post).

Please read last year’s post for management recommendations. The UC Fungicide and Bactericide Efficacy table that we contribute to for strawberries has been revised for 2025 and is available now.

We are working out the techniques for screening for resistance to this disease in our popular cultivars. Host plant resistance is one preventive disease management tactic that can be used if we know the susceptibility of our cultivars.