ID/Disease Cycle: The first symptom of this disease is browning along the major leaf veins on newly emerging leaf clusters. The leaves wilt quickly and bend to resemble a shepherd's crook. A light gray powdery layer of spores develops at the leaf base. These spores go on to infect flowers and fruit. Infected green berries appear healthy but cutting them open reveals a white fungal growth inside. When berries start to ripen, infected berries appear pinkish tan and slightly ridged. They feel rubbery and contain a gray to black fungal mass inside. Infected berries eventually become faded, shrivel up, and fall to the ground. After the fruit skin has weathered off, the berries look like tiny black pumpkins.
The fungus overwinters in the mummified fruit on the ground. In early spring, trumpet-shaped mushroom cups produced on the mummies eject windborne spore that infect young shoots. Frost may increase susceptibility of blueberry shoots to infection.  Spores are produced on blighted shoots and are carried to flowers by wind, rain, and insects (bees), resulting in fruit infections. Mummies that fall to the ground provide inoculum for the disease in the following year.  Weather conditions so far in 2015 do not really favor mummy berry development. However, if a field was heavily infested in 2014 the inoculum level is likely to be high and infections can still occur.   
  
photo credits: 1) MSU Blueberry Facts 2) eXtension fact sheet 3) NC State Fruit Consortium

Damage: The fungus infects and invades the developing fruit rendering it unmarketable.

Management:
Monitoring: Consult scouting records from previous years to determine if build-up of this disease is indicated.  Monitor weather conditions to identify likely infection periods.  Scout fields beginning at budbreak for symptomatic tissue.  This timing often coincides with Fortsythia bloom.

Control strategies:
Cultural/Biological:

Chemical: