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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2007 18:01:33 GMT
I have been looking at last years plants (6 in total) together with the new plants from last years runners (7 of these).
At the moment they are in 3 plastic troughs but I am looking for ideas for replanting. Last year I had problems with slugs and woodlice eating the fruit just as it had rippened.
What size containers should I use and what is best for mulching to stop the pests getting the fruit?
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Post by oldmoleskins on Feb 24, 2007 18:12:36 GMT
I'm a fan of 'hanging strawberries' after seeing them grow like this in Guernsey on a commercial basis:
lengths of guttering fixed to a shed or garden wall, can be one above the other, at convenient height for grazing...
You could fix troughs similarly - sort of windowboxes without the windows...
Either way, they may escape the attention of slugs and woodlice, and you can hang netting down over them to keep birds off too! OM
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2007 18:17:09 GMT
Hadn't thought about attaching them to the wall will have to measure tomorrow and see where they could go. Last years plants are quite large so I think I would need lots of hanging baskets.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2007 18:29:58 GMT
Last year i put grass clippings around my strawbs. I put the clippings on every week as a mulch until the foliage developed and covered over the ground in between. Worked a treat at suppressing weeds too. Funny thing was that i didn't suffer with slugs or earwigs chewing them at all and I puth this down to the grass clippings.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2007 18:48:40 GMT
Do you grow your plants in containers or in a bed?
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Post by Chuckles on Feb 24, 2007 20:46:05 GMT
My neigbour was sorting her Strawberry plants out today and gave me 6 plants I found two of the half circle plastic wall hangers in the shed and put 2 plants in each, not sure what to do with the others yet. I have an old supermarket basket that has some plants in from last year, it's lined with black poly and I just hook it onto a couple of hooks on the side of the shed. I never mamnge to get enough for a meal though, maybe because everytime I pass them I pick and eat them ;D ;D
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Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2007 20:17:12 GMT
Do you grow your plants in containers or in a bed? I grow Pegasus strawbs in a bed. It's quite a big bed as have 50 strawb plants in it. Here's a pic . The area with the canes and netting on is all strawbs. Have one container with smaller strawbs (not sure what they are called as neighbour gave me some runners) in more for decoration on patio. I find my strawbs in the bed easier to manage.
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Post by Chuckles on Feb 25, 2007 21:14:03 GMT
After planting up the plants my neighbour gave me yesterday I decide to sort out the supermarket basket with my last years plants in. I emptied it out and started sorting the young plants out and found the dreaded Vine Weevil. Little blighters had gone up into the harder root growth of the plant. All sorted now, hard root cut off and all remaining roots washed off and planted up in fresh compo. The old compo has gone in a bucket and been topped up with water, I'll leave it for just over a week to make sure they are dead and then tip it in the compo bin. Never had them in Strawberries before
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2007 11:03:54 GMT
The strawberry bed looks lovely Ziggy unfortunately I haven't got that much space, will be trying out your method with the grass clippings though.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2007 19:41:07 GMT
I've actually planted too many Borage...i'm going to cut take out two rows this year and put the ground to other good use for veggies.
The grass certainly helps.....as long as it's not too deep a couple of inches so the air can still get in.
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