Germination of strawberry seed was accelerated by natural and artificial infections of Ulocladium charatarum and other fungi, including the Arthrinium state of Apiospora montagnei and a Cladosporium sp. Germination was variously promoted by fungi both in light and darkness, on damp filter paper, water and malt agar plates and on horticultural compost. Germinated seedlings were apparently undamaged by these infections, although when cultured on malt agar the seedlings were overgrown by the fungus. Several other fungi promoted germination, but three of them later killed the seedlings. Germination of seed of all three cultivars that were tested was promoted by fungal infection which probably promoted germination by hastening breakdown of the seed coat.
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Guttridge et al. (1984) studied this question.