Pests & diseases › Mummy Berry
Mummy Berry
Fungal disease of blueberries. Wilted shoots in spring, berries turn pink-cream and shrivel into hard mummies.
Symptoms
- Wilting shoot tips in spring — look as if hit by frost
- Tan fungal growth on wilting shoots
- Developing berries turn pink-cream then drop
- Mummified berries on the ground all winter
Lifecycle
Mummies on ground produce spore-bearing cups in spring that infect new shoots.
What to do
- Rake and remove all mummified berries from beneath bushes in winter
- Mulch with 2 inches of fresh material in spring (buries cups)
If it's bad
- Captan, propiconazole sprays at bud break
Stop it coming back
- Resistant blueberry varieties: Bluetta, Patriot, Northland
- Aggressive winter sanitation
- Deep mulch every spring
Crops it goes for
Plan the plot, track every sowing, cook the harvest
Sowing reminders and harvest forecasts for your own frost dates, the Seed Tin, Scan Centre for any label or packet, and the Potty Mouth Garden Club. Free to start.