SUMMARYSingle doses of benomyl, 0–4 g/plant in 1972 or 0–04 g in 1973, were applied in 100 ml water to the surface of the soil in 12‐5 cm pots containing Cambridge Vigour strawberry plants, either before inoculation withVerticillium dahliaeor at various times up to 56 days afterwards. Pre‐inoculation treatments were terminated by washing the potting medium from the roots at the time of inoculation and their effects on pathogenesis and growth were relatively small. Post‐inoculation treatments with benomyl prevented or suspended pathogenesis for at least as long as fungistatic activity could be detected in petiole segments by bioassay; this was for more than 150 days after the larger dose, 50–60 days after the smaller dose applied 7–28 days after inoculation and 30 days when applied 56 days after inoculation.There were no consistent differences in the uptake and persistence of benomyl in inoculated and non‐inoculated plants.Early post‐inoculation treatment caused some retardation of plant growth, but benomyl‐treated inoculated plants were generally comparable in size with similarly treated non‐inoculated ones, and much larger than untreated inoculated plants.Increasing the dose of benomyl applied to the soil apparently had little influence on theintensityof its effects but greatly increased theirduration,probably because of the low solubility of