A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Strawberries have gone MUTANT ON ME... Anybody?!?!

I have had these strawberry plants for almost 2 years now. I got a little bit of fruit last year, but this year they are exploding with new strawberries. Today upon inspection THEY HAVE LONG SCALES!!! Well some of them do. We have tons of normal growing berries, but on every single plant they have fruit that have these long scaley looking hairly looking things that give me the complete heebee geebees. I have looked everywhere and anywhere to find out what the heck is going on. They are throughout all of my plants. I have normal fruit and then these things. I am stumped!
Please HELP!

The strawberries seem to have bolted...and honestly I just can't figure it out...I searched for over an hour last night and could find no info.

So I have spent approx 24 hrs the last 3 day just looking everywhere and anywhere. I'm determined to solve this if it takes all year!!!!

I really can't tell for sure what these scaly things look like. can you submit another pic that's focused a little different? maybe that would help?

Check your other post..I think Merme has the answer for you.

Okay here isa beter picture and closer at a diff angle without me touching and messing with the other fruit around them!

I am not 100% on this, but they appear to be seeding, or multiplying. Its something to look into (research)

Strawberrys need to be replanted everyother year .
Take the runners an make new plants.

You will notice more seeds in the berry yearly. That is why you have to start new ones from runners......

They arent forever..I why I dont understand what traders are giving.

You need to resize your pic...it's too large for dial-up users.

I leave my berry plants up to 4 years with no problems. I agree with Merme's idea on how they are probably hybrid plants...and they went to seed the second year.

I'm sorry but I didn't see what Merme wrote. I looked at this thread a few days ago and have thought about it, and asked around, as well. Something happened in the gene expression.....not a genetic change, but the way the gene "expressed" or signaled the growth what to do. It caused foliage growth when it should have been developing normal fruit and seed....not so unusual, necessarily, because minor environmental things can upset hormones, etc. that direct growth. One friend suggested that this may not carry on to the next generation. That was what I was thinking. If you know of anything sprayed in your area, even up to blocks away, it could be a possible trigger. It could be a virus. It is not part of the normal progress of strawberry growth, as the offshoots or side shoots are selected for their vigor, they do not decline over time if mew shoots are selected. If this has affected all of your plants, I certainly suspect a virus, I've seen the affects of viral disease on roses and some of my other plants, and often, variegated plants, are actually caused by a begign virus, and then propagated for the variegation.
If this was spray drift, you could either ignore it and wait for the new berries, or pick away the berries to promote a second crop, which may or may not show these symptoms. If it was drift, the next crop should be fine.

BTW, don't believe I'm an authority on anything, just know a few things about a few things, I've got a lot to learn.

Good answer, pepper. I really did research and found nothing quite like this. I did find some interesting mutant strawberries in some racy shapes, however.

HMMM!!! do tell, yeehee
I am all about racy!

i am growing wild strawberries and ones we bought and they dont look like that .

what is the points for and how do u get that.