Help with Strawberrys

gary29428

I have just put in a few raised beds and planted some strawberry plants (the ones from lidl). Never grown a thing in my life, can somebody please give me one or two pointers on what I need to do to ensure they grow (pruning, feeding etc).

Thanks

TentCrasher

Place broken egg shells at base of each plant to keep the slugs away and maybe cover with a net to stop the birds getting at them.

gary29428

Thanks for the reply, I have small slate stones around the base of all the plants, will these stop the slugs or the egg shells a better job. Somebody mentioned I need to cut the runners when they appear, somebody else said I should be cutting off the flowers.

Yi Harr

The flowers are what become the strawberries so don't cut them off. The runners can be pinned onto the soil (where leaves appear) and they will provide you with new plants which can be potted on. They (the runners) can also be removed if necessary (if they are draining too much nutrients from the plant).

Just keep them watered but not overly wet as this can attract moulds etc. Feeding can be done but I don't think it's really necessary as there should be lots of nutrients in the potting compost they are in. If you do feed use a tomato feed which should promote fruiting.

There are lots of natural ways of keeping slugs off your strawberries, such as using beer traps or mulching the bed with wool, straw, grit or egg shells (as previously mentioned) without having to resort to slug pellets.

Have a look through this page for more info.

looksee

Don't cut off the flowers or you won't get any strawberries! We pretty much ignore ours, apart from bird protection, and get a good return of strawberries. You could cut off some of the runners - leave maybe one on each plant so you have new plants coming on, but really they are very easy.

gary29428

Yi Harr, what fed would you recommend, will any plant food work on them.

Thanks

redser7

Sorry to butt in but would it be too late to buy a few plants from the garden centre and expect a crop this summer? Thanks

Corsendonk

redser7 wrote: »

Sorry to butt in but would it be too late to buy a few plants from the garden centre and expect a crop this summer? Thanks

Perfect timing actually, just give the plants a good check for quality/health when buying.

Yi Harr

You could use any fruit/vegetable specific plant food (miracle-gro etc.) or tomato feed, these feeds are high in nutrients which promote fruiting (potassium, magnesium).

If you do feed them remember to follow the instructions very closely as it's quite easy to overfeed plants and kill them.

Hope this helps.

redser7

Excellent! Thanks.

gary29428

Yeah, thanks to everyone who replied, much appreciated.