Hows your strawberries

fryup

Hows your strawberries this year?

Its looking pretty good for me so far:), do any of you have any tips for keeping mould off them? less watering maybe?

Qwerty?

Unfortunately our harvesting seems to be pretty much over, but got some crop this year:D. Started feeding to see if I could get another late crop.

Prenderb

One so far, might have picked it a little early, it was quite hard. As for mould, some people put straw between the strawberries and the ground, which I think is for that reason.

Edit: You already have, I see. Sorry!

Qwerty?

I used hanging strawberry planters this year and found them great, no slug damage and no mildew problems. The ones on the ground did occasionally get damaged.

These pics were taken on the 10th June.

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gsxr1

little white worms came up and eat mine. littler feckers. I pots!!.

Second batch is now flowering.

bmaxi

Mine are outside. Excellent crop this year, I think the harsh winter had a lot to do with it.

hello932

bmaxi wrote: »

Mine are outside. Excellent crop this year, I think the harsh winter had a lot to do with it.

Is a cold winter good for strawberries?

Dr Galen

Qwerty? wrote: »

I used hanging strawberry planters this year and found them great, no slug damage and no mildew problems. The ones on the ground did occasionally get damaged.

These pics were taken on the 10th June.

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very jealous indeed. Mine have been crap, and I'm not sure why at all. I'm thinking soil quality has something to do with it. Either way, I'll get some, but nothing amazing

gary29428

I am a total novice but bought some of the lidl plants and put them in raised beds. Plants themselves look like they are flying but not getting much fruit from them. Was expecting maybe 7 or 8 from each plant, put 30 in, am I being a bit hopefull.

bmaxi

hello932 wrote: »

Is a cold winter good for strawberries?

Only indirectly I suppose. In my case I think it's the reduction of pests and diseases plus later flowering, when there were a lot more pollinators around. The plants I have are five years old and really should have been replaced by now but the weather last year was so bad I never got around to it. They actually look better this year than last.
I think a lot of things have benefitted from the cold winter, I know my spring flowering shrubs have been magnificent..

unkel

fryup wrote: »

Hows your strawberries this year?

Had the first few a couple of days ago and they were lovely

I'm not really growing them for crop results, more for showing my small kids and for sure they are fascinated by it. That said the yield was very good last year and looks promising this year too.

The strawberries started to flower and grow very late this year but the fruits growing from small and green into big and red has been extraordinarily fast this year (pretty much during the last two weeks)

John mac

picked 2.5 kg last night. will put up a pic later.

Mr. Presentable

Mine are small and few. Does the age of the plant come into it? Mine are about five years old.

bmaxi

nipplenuts wrote: »

Mine are small and few. Does the age of the plant come into it? Mine are about five years old.

Like a lot of things in gardening, it's variable according to conditions. The usual recommendation is to plant new plants every 3-4 years.
Have you been feeding and watering your plants?

Mr. Presentable

The plants are very lush and green, big leaves and very healthy looking. I give them plenty of water and a spot of tomato feed every four weeks.

whelpy

You know when the strawberry plant flowers in it's first year, are you supposed to pick off it's flowers? Last year as an experiment i let the flowers grow on one plant and picked them off on a second plant: the latter produced great fruit this year

bmaxi

whelpy wrote: »

You know when the strawberry plant flowers in it's first year, are you supposed to pick off it's flowers? Last year as an experiment i let the flowers grow on one plant and picked them off on a second plant: the latter produced great fruit this year

Interesting. I remember, a few years back, one of the UK gardening shows doing a survey on this. It found AFAIR, that picking the flowers off made no difference if the strawberries were Autumn planted but a big difference if they were Spring planted.
Since then I always plant new plants in September, I couldn't wait two years for them to fruit and then replace them in the third year. When did you plant yours?

bmaxi

nipplenuts wrote: »

The plants are very lush and green, big leaves and very healthy looking. I give them plenty of water and a spot of tomato feed every four weeks.

If they fruited well in earlier years they may need replacing. Pot up a few runners and plant out in September.

whelpy

bmaxi wrote: »

Interesting. I remember, a few years back, one of the UK gardening shows doing a survey on this. It found AFAIR, that picking the flowers off made no difference if the strawberries were Autumn planted but a big difference if they were Spring planted.
Since then I always plant new plants in September, I couldn't wait two years for them to fruit and then replace them in the third year. When did you plant yours?

Um well the thing is, i bought one plant in the mallow garden show during the summer last year so spring i presume??
I haven't ever planted them out (other plants came out from the original one) so they've always been in pots.

Oliverdog

Sensational crop this year, repaying my efforts in making a nice cage to fit the raised bed and keep the birds off. We picked 2 kilos this week and the wife made jam out of them, 6 jars. They're really juicy though and the jam didn't set perfectly. Just the two of us, so strawberries and ice cream wearing a bit thin, but eating them still warm from the sun is a rare treat.

dfbemt

Like most others, a great year this year.

I have one bed which I have had for 5 years now and decided last year that I would let it go as I was expanding the raised beds and wanted to put them somewhere else.

They got no attention, no weeding, no feeding and they went crazy. Strawberry fest is still ongoing. A family of 5 can't eat them quick enough. Sometimes the whole gardening logic doesn't work quite as it should !!!

New bed gave lovely big fruits and I'm potting the runners for next year. I put in 2 different varieties and one has leaves that are turning up. Need to investigate that.

Pics to follow before I pick the next batch.

looksee

Oliverdog wrote: »

Sensational crop this year, repaying my efforts in making a nice cage to fit the raised bed and keep the birds off. We picked 2 kilos this week and the wife made jam out of them, 6 jars. They're really juicy though and the jam didn't set perfectly. Just the two of us, so strawberries and ice cream wearing a bit thin, but eating them still warm from the sun is a rare treat.

Strawberry jam does not set usually, unless you put in loads of pectin or apple (same thing). I personally think its better to have runny jam to pour on icecream, rather than synthetic stiff jam

Oliverdog

That's just what I did this afternoon, watching the World Cup. Lovely stuff !:)

fryup

last week a bumper crop, this week not so good:(...not as plentiful and mould beginning to set in

skywalker_208

Qwerty? wrote: »

I used hanging strawberry planters this year and found them great, no slug damage and no mildew problems. The ones on the ground did occasionally get damaged.

These pics were taken on the 10th June.

P1070234.JPG

P1070235.JPG

P1070238.JPG

P1070245.JPG

Qwerty thats a very nice pollytunnel u have there. What size is it?

mags16

I have a basket of strawberries that haave been doing really well. The fruits have been large and juicy.

A couple of weeks ago, I turned the hanging basket around so that the fruit in the shade could ripen.

Now, however, most of the fruit is really small - I mean really tiny. They are red but really teeny.

Why is this? Is it because I turned them? Should I be feeding them more?

Any advice is welcome.

John mac

so far i have had about 10KG from my little patch. made smoothies and lots of jam. and froze loads.
this was one of the first picks.

crosstownk

I had a mediocre year last year. They grow outside without any covering or protection. This year I left them to their own devices and had a bumper crop! I didn't spray them with anything and just left them to grow. I've lost a few to the blackbirds but I don't mind. The crop is almost done - I harvested loads a few days ago. There's a few more yet to ripen and plenty of runners shooting out for next year.