Mummy Berry

Mummy berry is not a seasonal breakfast cereal. Instead, it is a fungal disease of blueberries.


This particular fungal disease is caused by the Monilinia vaccinii-corymbosi fungus. It is nearly always present in the soil, but a cool, wet spring can set the stage for serious losses.

Blueberries infected with mummy berry (Jay Pscheidt) CC BY-SA 2.0

Symptoms of mummy berry
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A healthy summer blueberry bush is thick with leaves and twigs, blossoms and fruit. After a cool, wet spring, however, you may notice that some of the blueberries shrivel up, turning hard and grey. Before the fruit even appears, you may see a coating of brown or blue spores on the veins of infected leaves. You may also see drooping, wilting, brownish flower clusters that are turned in on themselves, before they turn brown and die. Immature fruit falls to the ground and twig tips become blighted in a condition called ‘shoot strikes’ and die. This is mummy berry.


​Mummy berry life cycle
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If you see tiny, cup-like mushrooms (apothecia), also known as trumpets, growing around the base of your blueberry bushes at budbreak, your blueberries may have mummy berry. These mushrooms emerge when temperatures range from 50 to 57°F, so check your thermometer regularly in spring. As the cup openings of these fungi reach a diameter of 2mm, they can start infecting your plants. A week or so after budbreak, new vegetative shoots emerge. In both cases, this tender new tissue is vulnerable to infection.


​​The mummy berry mushroom spews fungal spores into the air, which then land on all this tender new plant tissue. Spores are also carried by pollinators, such as honey bees, wind, and water. Once the fungi reach your blueberries, they need adequate moisture to continue growing. According to research from Ag Canada, the following chart tells you the likelihood of infection at different temperatures, depending on how long leaves stay wet:

Likelihood of mummy berry occuring at various temperatures. Modified from Ag Canada.

If you cut open an infected green berry, you can see white fungal tissue. [Afterwards, be sure to clean your cutting tools with a household cleaner, such as Lysol. If you don’t, you will spread the infection.]


​Controlling mummy berry

Once infection occurs, all you can do is removed the diseased tissue and either burn it or throw it in the trash. You can reduce the chance of mummy berry causing too much damage in your garden with these tips:

• remove all blueberry mummies & diseased stems
• regularly monitor plants for sign of mummy berry
• irrigate properly and avoid overhead watering
• mulch with 2 inches of Douglas fir sawdust
• rake the area around blueberry plants each spring
• remove weeds
• select resistant varieties
• if absolutely necessary, apply least damaging fungicides, such as fixed copper or Bordeaux mixture

Resistant blueberry varieties

Some blueberry varieties are more resistant to mummy berry than others. According to the USDA Agricultural Research Service, low bush varieties with less than 3% mummified berries include:

• ‘Brunswick'
• ‘Chignecto'
• ‘Fundy'
• ‘Putte'
• ‘Zuckertraube’

A mummy berry resistant group of varietals called half-highs, being crosses between low and high bush varieties, include:

• ‘Chippewa'
• 'North Country’
• ‘Northsky'
• 'St. Cloud’

Resistant highbush cultivars that rated the best with 10.3% or less mummified berries are:

• ‘Bluegold’
• ‘Bluejay'
• 'Brigitta Blue’
• ‘Patriot'
• ‘Reka'
• ‘Reveille'
• ‘Weymouth'

​However, high bush varietals are generally not recommended for warmer regions. They need more chill hours than we tend to get. There is also a cross between a southern highbush and rabbiteye blueberry, called 'Pearl River’, that is resistant to mummy berry. The ‘Berkeley’ variety seems to be the most vulnerable to mummy berry infection.


To enjoy the lush, sweet flavor of blueberries in summer, be sure to monitor your plants for signs of mummy berry!