Strawberry Plants - knowing when they're done!

cootambear

radiohelen wrote: »

Sorry to hijack but I've got a variety that doesn't appear to make runners! It does make loverly strawbs though. How can I propagate these babies other than from seed?

you can, but only if you are in a garden lab like like great malling

otherwise, you are left with seeds, strawbs are very hard to grow from seeds

best get some that produce runners and save yourself a lot of hard work

cootambear

I was in LIDL yesterday

all their strawb plants had sold out which I thought was encoraging till I saw the names of the varieties they had been selling, elsanta, sonata, all the supermarket !!!!! that no doubt the growers had an excess of

If I had more time I would run a website to bring back real tasting strawbs to the UK, HFW and Jamie washisface don`t have a clue about our standout fruit, the strawb

I`m not claiming to be an expert, but when the man in the street knows more about strawbs than the foodies we are in big trouble

twiglet98

I once tore out a cutting recommending strawb varieties with girls' names, I can't find the cutting and can't remember them all - I THINK they included Rosie, Alice and Sophie? None of these are at my local garden centre, they only had Cambridge Favourite last year

Ambidou

If you want alot of older varieties that arent mass produced, the best way is to buy the seed and grow them on yourself, i find garden centre's only stock the most common varieties as acctual plants ready for going in

VfM4meplse

Can I ask a completely naiive q on this thread?

I've wanted to grow strawberries for years, but have been put off by the fear of attracting vermin. How do you protect your plants from unwanted attention from rats / squirrels / foxes. And do nets really keep them safe from birds?

poppysarah

Or use a stick to mark ones that don't produce much and dig them out at the end of the season

Kantankrus_Mare

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Can I ask a completely naiive q on this thread?

I've wanted to grow strawberries for years, but have been put off by the fear of attracting vermin. How do you protect your plants from unwanted attention from rats / squirrels / foxes. And do nets really keep them safe from birds?

Ive been growing strawberries on my plot for the last six years. Can't say vermin has been a problem but a few strawberries have chunks out of them which I put down to slugs.

We just put half hoops over each end of the beg and cover with netting when plants are covered in flowers and about to fruit.

Never fed them them with anything just a good water and have had fantastic crops!!!

iQueen

Twiglet98

Did you find your scrap of paper?

The only Strawberry I can think of is Florence - late harvest. Very nice flavour.

shegirl

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Can I ask a completely naiive q on this thread?

I've wanted to grow strawberries for years, but have been put off by the fear of attracting vermin. How do you protect your plants from unwanted attention from rats / squirrels / foxes. And do nets really keep them safe from birds?

I grow all of mine in pots and never had any problems with vermin Never used nets either tbh the birds get their food anyway and most of the birds that visit us live in the front of my house (up near the guttering bless them:D).

Unfortunately,nearly every other plant I had last year was absolutely demolished by slugs Think the only plants to survive were my buddleia,didn't even get chance to plant half of them out as there were so many slugs last year,when I had them out in the pots to acclimatise them they were bloomin eaten

iQueen

cootambear wrote: »

I was in LIDL yesterday

all their strawb plants had sold out which I thought was encoraging till I saw the names of the varieties they had been selling, elsanta, sonata, all the supermarket !!!!! that no doubt the growers had an excess of

If I had more time I would run a website to bring back real tasting strawbs to the UK, HFW and Jamie washisface don`t have a clue about our standout fruit, the strawb

I`m not claiming to be an expert, but when the man in the street knows more about strawbs than the foodies we are in big trouble

When you look at the age of the foodies, is it surprising that they promote whatever a supermarket will pay them for?

We now have at least TWO generations that have never experienced the REAL taste of fruit and vegetables - just the insipid, under-ripe, manufactured carp, demanded by the supermarkets! No one takes the complaints of older people seriously, blaming our 'failing' tastebuds, rather than admit that the supermarkets are selling us rubbish. Before long there will be no one left to complain.