no more flowers on strawberry plants

lolly5648

purpleheather2810 wrote: »

I'd say they were old plants. Plant the runners and get rid of the original plants.... Better luck next year

Brand new plants from the garden centre. I have potted up some runners so hopefully next year will be good

icecreamdogpark

:)Thanks for replies ok so maybe they will reward me next year

dollparts

when they have stopped producing what do you have to do with them to get them ready for next year?

jeferey

I've got a mixture of some 5 year old plants (brought from garden to allotment 3 years ago) in a raised bed and some 1 and 2 year olds from runners and had a wonderful crop here in North Notts on my allotment. I haven't fed them at all and had pounds and pounds (or kilos and kilos!). Went up on Sunday and picked another 6.5 pounds and although they are now nearing the end there is loads more. I would say this is my best year yet.
I will pot up some of the runners and replace some of the older plants later this year.

jeferey

dollparts wrote: »

when they have stopped producing what do you have to do with them to get them ready for next year?

I just let them die back and then remove the scraggy looking foliage and give them a good mulch. Remove any runners you do not want or you have already propogated and you are ready for next year.

Primrose

Strawberries only have one flowering period a year, although some of mine do produce an occasional small second flush of flowers & fruit in September. Cut the dead leaves back. Pin down any runners into separate pots of compost and when they've developed roots of their own, separate them from their parent to make new plants. Strawberries are only supposed to have a life of 3 years. You can keep them longer than this but the plants deteriorate and produce a smaller & smaller crop every year, so it's worth looking after your runners so that you can continually update your stock.

cootambear

lolly5648 wrote: »

I have also got Elsanta. Six plants in a raised bed, fed and watered regularly and only 3 produced strawberries. About 15 in total. Very disappointing.

Elsanta are the variety the supermarkets use as they have a long shelf life because they are tough as old boots. and taste like them too. I would set fire to them and buy a variety highly rated for flavour like mara de bois or darlisette. Avoid varieties described as `firm`

SingleMumAndProud

I am glad I found this thread. I was really disapointed with the amount of strawberries we had. I bought 5 plants from homebase and got a few small strawberries from each one. With 2 toddlers they just dissapear!

My parents have been trying to get rid of their strawberries for years but they keep appearing and they litterally get bowls full every time they go out to pick them!

A._Badger

I'm afrad I agree with Cootambear about Elsanta - and varieties really do matter with strawberries. It's no good just picking up whatever the garden centre has to offer. You need to think in advance about what point in the summer you want your crop. There's a lot to be said for late flowering and fruiting varieties, as in the main season strawberires are cheap to buy. Equally, you might want a very early one, for when the fruits also cost a lot in the shops.

If you want a mid-season type, one new variety I've been particularly impressed with is Alice. It's just a few days later than Elsanta and is, in my estimation, far superior.

What other posters have said about the three year rule is true (as is their advice to take runners) but do read-up about the varieties on offer and make a choice based on what suits you. Then, so long as you feed and water, strawberries are really very undemanding fruits to grow.

Good luck next year!

realfood

In addition to the other comments, I would mention that there are two main types of strawberries. Those that normally only fruit once a year, and the perpetual fruiting types that usually fruit in 3 flushes from June to October. You need to know the variety name to find out which type you have.
I grow the perpetual type as it keeps the strawberries going for several months.