Don't plant raspberries, strawberries or stone fruit where your log shows a wilt host
As recorded: Do not establish Verticillium-susceptible perennials where the season log records that a Verticillium host (strawberry, raspberry or other bramble, or stone fruit) previously grew. The coarse prior-Solanaceae family signal structurally misses this reservoir.
Promising A person has checked it against its sources. If you skip this, you lose real yield. The planner warns you.
How it works
The same soil reservoir as the wilt rule for ground that grew the tomato family (Verticillium dahliae microsclerotia). This rule adds the gardener's own record: a logged strawberry, raspberry or other bramble, or stone fruit counts as an earlier host, while a rose family that is not a host, like apple, does not.
What to do about it
Site the perennial where the log shows no previous Verticillium host, or choose one that is not susceptible. Extension advises growing a non-host (corn or a small grain) for at least two years first, without claiming that clears the soil. Once the perennial is planted there is no in-ground cure.
How much it matters: Same guidance as another rule here. Avoid establishing brambles or strawberries after a Verticillium host, and grow a non-host (corn or a small grain) for at least 2 years first. Microsclerotia can persist for up to ~10 years, and the number of years required to eliminate the pathogen is described by extension as unknown.
The evidence
Evidence: checked against 2 sources in the research-based literature.
The 2 sources
To minimize ... disease, choose a planting site with no known history of this problem. Avoid land recently planted with tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, peppers, strawberries, raspberries, or stone fruits
Verticillium attacks a wide range of plants, including potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and strawberries.
Plus one working note on how the sources were read. Every note is in the data download.
Plants it applies to · 7
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How this rule has changed
Every change is dated, newest first. The full record, with each reason, is in the data download.
- Sources updated
- How it works updated
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- Advice on what to do added
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- A person read the sources and confirmed it
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Cite this page
Milpa Gardens. “Don't plant raspberries, strawberries or stone fruit where your log shows a wilt host.” Evidence grade: Promising. https://milpa.garden/rules/do-not-establish-verticillium-susceptible-perennials-where/
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How we grade evidence
- Well established
- The rule names its mechanism and is settled, by sources a person has read and checked or by plain arithmetic and geometry.
- Promising
- The mechanism is named and the literature backs it. A few questions are still open.
- A good hunch
- Plausible by its mechanism, but field studies are thin, so treat it as a lean.
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- The evidence points both ways, or no study has tested it, so the planner does not enforce it.
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