flower flushes and stems of a strawberry plant

[Deleted User]

My mara strawberries are producing a second flush of flowers and these flowers are all on erect, thick and strong stems, standing up proud and just about to the top of the leaves. The first flush were held on thin, floppy stems and were very delicate and prone to any bit of mildew on the wet soil. The plants look very healthy now

Sonata, my latest variety, is setting a good lot of first flush strawberries on thick healthy stems. Sonata is a modern cultivar and mara is an old variety. I fed the plants for the second time last week and the flower stems were formed before then

Are the weak first stems fairly typical and might it have been a good idea to have cut them off, knowing that we were going to have so much wet and cold weather? I could do with someone`s experienced opinion on this

I am speaking only about the plants at home in planters and not about the allotment plants on the ground

cootambear

kittie wrote: »

My mara strawberries are producing a second flush of flowers and these flowers are all on erect, thick and strong stems, standing up proud and just about to the top of the leaves. The first flush were held on thin, floppy stems and were very delicate and prone to any bit of mildew on the wet soil. The plants look very healthy now

Sonata, my latest variety, is setting a good lot of first flush strawberries on thick healthy stems. Sonata is a modern cultivar and mara is an old variety. I fed the plants for the second time last week and the flower stems were formed before then

Are the weak first stems fairly typical and might it have been a good idea to have cut them off, knowing that we were going to have so much wet and cold weather? I could do with someone`s experienced opinion on this

I am speaking only about the plants at home in planters and not about the allotment plants on the ground

I have this too. My plants are not thriving flower/fruit wise due to the lack of sunshine (global warming eh?).

I dont think it matters a jot if you cut them off, unless you can forecast 3 weeks of solid sunshine.

on the upside, smaller berries are more tasty, if you can keep the slugs/snails off them, this weather is their delight

rlatarche

How old are the strawberry plants? if they are new this year the best thing to do is not let the plant fruit or set runners so that it can concentrate on establishing itself.

Oh and remember to erect some form of netting around your fruits to stop birds eating all of your crops!

I've been growing strawberries for several years now and the first year or two the plant were not very well established and put all there energy into runners and fruit, where as this year (their 3rd year) i've got 15 healthy established plants with each plant growing 10-12 large strawberries. (I got several different varieties some everbearing some earlies to stagger the harvest)