strawberries

[Ladygardener]

Have just come back from the garden centre with 15 strawberry plants, their name is Loran, is it too early this weekend if it stops raining to plant them outside? are strawberries hard to grow? I've never tried any of this before. Have to blame this board for me buying all these things. ;D

[Weeterrier]

I'll echo that I bought six strawberry plants a few weeks ago, and they have been repotted but not planted out yet. They have been outside all the time though, they are hardy.
I don't know much about them, but I believe it is best to remove the runners which will form on them (they have little plantlets at the end of them) This takes energy away from fruit producing. However, if you want new plants instead of fruit, you can anchor the plantlets to the ground, and they will root. Then you can sever them from the parent.
I think the main problems with strawberries are slugs and birds and the rotting of the fruit which is lying on the soil. Straw can be placed around the plant as a cushion, or you can use membrane.
So they are easy to grow, it is the care of the fruit whilst growing which is the problem.
This morning, I made myself a little raised bed for mine, a metre square. I am going to make a canopy from netting to stop the birds scoffing the crop.
You'll get better advice, I'm sure. As I say, I am pretty ignorant about this. I'm good at blackcurrants though. ;D

[Ladygardener]

Thanks a million for your help and advice WT. Did'nt know that about the runners so I'll be removing any that appear, my aim is to have some fruit this year. I've got some room in my newly dug this year bed so I'll put some there and maybe pots for the others. Do they benifit from a few chicken pellets would you think? It's the first year I've used pellets too. ;D

[Tig]

I read earlier this year that you get more fruit if you don't feed them too much lng. I have some planted in the front garden and they never get fed and often have better strawbs than the ones I grow in a trough! The fruits hang over the sides which is handy as it stops them rotting, but doesn't stop the birds nicking them!

x Tig

[jean]

Strawberries like a good rich soil and can exhaust a bed in 3 years - so its good to move them, or even better take a few runners and pot them up each year so you have a supply of new plantlets. If you want to grown on last years runners, its a good idea to pinch out the flowers and not let the plants set fruit, this way you will end up with a stronger plant for next year and hopefully lots of fruit.

Chicken pellets are a good source of slow release food for most fruit and veg LNG btw they do pong a bit

[Ladygardener]

Thanks Tig, I'll have some in beds and some in pots so it'll be interesting to see which does the best. Thanks Jlottie that's good advice about the plantlets etc... I might do that with one of the plants and use it as a propagator for others. worth a thought maybe. You're right about the pong but it's worth it if they're good. ;D

[Ladygardener]

the first ripe strawberries today, looking forward to tasting them tonight. these are the ones in the trough on the windowledge, the ones in the "veg plot" are further behind,

[Plocket]

They are looking lovely LNG! We've got ours in hanging baskets and a hanging bucket (well that's how I bought them!) and I'll be doing babies for next year and replanting them in new soil.

[Jardack]

oooh lovely CAn't beat strawberries from the garden for taste! They are so sweet - assuming I get there before the girls of course

Jardack

[Plocket]

That's the problem isn't it? LP has eaten loads of our strawberries - I've only had one!!!

[Auricula]

It must be a good year for strawberries.I have bought local ones from the farm shop, and ones from Herefordshire from Tescos and they have all been sweet and so tasty that they reminded me of the ones from my childhood. Yummy!!!

[Barbara]

if you get 3 flowers together, pinch out the smallest, and you will get 2 decent sized strawbs. instead of 3 small.
you have to move the ones in the ground after about 3 years, as all the pests and diseases attack them after that long in the same spot, i think they probably exhaust the ground after a time.

[nightowl]

Jun 26, 2008 11:18:07 GMT Ladygardener said:

the first ripe strawberries today, looking forward to tasting them tonight. these are the ones in the trough on the windowledge, the ones in the "veg plot" are further behind,

I grow mine like that too LNG. Not had a "crop" as such cos every time i see a ripe one it gets eaten on the spot!

Best variety I've found recently is called Calypso. V tasty!

[Ladygardener]

Thanks for the teps Barbara I can't see me ever getting a bowl full as I'll most likely be eating them as they ripen. They are so very sweet ;D

[Chuckles]

I'm a bit like you LNG I can't resist them ;D I'm trying to be good this year though. In the last few days I've had a few that are in the GH start to plump up and ripen, the ones outside in baskets have been eaten by the birds

Some of my fruit are on really short stems, whats all that about then ? I've never noticed it before.

[carolann]

Here you go, took this last night

oooooooooh it was tasty. had to press it down a bit and prop it up with cocktail sticks.

[Ladygardener]

looks yummy, well done CA52
can anyone tell me why some of my strawberries are rotting on their stalks? it's before they even turn red so it's not as if they're going off. Thought it was too good to be true that I could grow them without any problems.

[Plocket]

We've had a lot of rain LNG so they might just be too wet. Ours seem to be doing well in the hanging baskets because they drain easily. There's never enough for a bowlfull though

[carolann]

Hi LNG, some of my early Strawberries rotted on the stem so I cut a lot of the leaves off to give more air circulation, plus the leaves where very large and on long stems, now more light and air can get to them.

[Ladygardener]

Thanks Plocket and CA52. It's good to know I'm not the only one this has happened to. I'll cut off some of the leaves tomorrow to give more air.

[Ladygardener]

Well, a little update, my strawberries have been smashing. ;D I'm well pleased and so was my little grand daughter Hannah at the weekend, she absolutely loved them and the baby tomatoes. The ones I've grown in the window box have done so much better than those in the ground. Happy days. How did everyone else do?

[carolann]

Hi LNG, glad little Hannah enjoyed her Strawberries. I have had a bumper crop this year and after cutting off all the leaves of the Early ones I now have nice green neat plants which are starting to flower again. I have potted up lots of runners and I will be planting them out sometime in September.

[Ladygardener]

Hi CA that's excellent. ;DI'm happy to hear you're doing well with your strawberries too.
I don't understand why I've not got runners maybe not enough room in the windowbox, I don't know.

[Ladygardener]

My strawberry plants are now all in the ground in a dedicated space for them. The leaves are starting to go yellow. Can anyone tell me if this is normal? Anything special I should do this winter for them?

[Chuckles]

Nov 9, 2008 10:27:38 GMT Ladygardener said:

My strawberry plants are now all in the ground in a dedicated space for them. The leaves are starting to go yellow. Can anyone tell me if this is normal? Anything special I should do this winter for them?

The leaves on mine go a lovely combination of yellow and red this time of year. Mine are in hanging baskets and pots LNG and as soon as they start to look tatty I just put them in a hidey hole ;D side of the shed or similar and just leave them till spring. They then get a tidy up/snip and a bit of fresh compo or what ever I've got handy to beef them up a bit, a good feed too.

Quite a few members have strawberries so we'll see what some of the others do with theirs

[Barbara]

hey LNG. thats ok thats what strawbs do, but you can only keep them in the same plot of land for a couple of years, three at the very most, because by then all the beasties have found them, they get covered in white fly and the like, so best to move them every couple of years.
barbara

[Ladygardener]

Thanks for your replies and advice Chuckles and Barbara, it's good to know they're behaving as they should. They're in a bed I made this year and although I added some organic material again this autumn it will need more next spring and over the next few seasons.

[carolann]

My Strawberry bed has been in the same place for nearly 20yrs, if we have a nice warm dry day then I shall be out cutting off all the leaves again and add some manure, then just leave it till next year. Also I will have to fill in some of the gaps with the runners which have been growing in the CF. Strawberries are so easy to look after, in fact they look after themselves.

[Ladygardener]

Thanks for your reply CA52, warm dry days are few and far between I'm afraid, I can only dream. :)But if it was dry at least I could get out. I'm happy to hear you've had your bed for 20 years. I remember when my children were little my x mother in law had strawberries every year in the same place. I'd thought maybe with new varieties this was no longer the case so it's good to know it can still happen. I think the weather for today and tomorrow is fairly dry although it's wet and windy at the moment. I will go out and tidy up a little as you've been doing.

[Barbara]

sorry not trying to lead you astray, it's just what I was told years ago.