500+ Strawberry Plants, Almost No Fruit – Heatwave Damage or Something I Did Wrong?

sujsuj

To be honest, I lost interest because of the lack of fruit.

Last year, my 50 strawberry plants produced such an excellent crop that I was confident enough to replace my potato plot with strawberries. Earlier this year, I spent a lot of time protecting them from birds, rabbits, rats, and other wildlife by installing fencing and netting.

After putting in so much effort, it's been hugely disappointing to end up with so little fruit. Over the last two or three weeks, I haven't even bothered watering them because it felt like this year's harvest was already over.

From what you've said, though, perhaps these new plants will perform much better in their second year. Hopefully, this season was just a setback, and next year the plants will reward all the hard work that has gone into establishing them.

sujsuj

Plums: My plums have once again produced an excellent crop. In fact, there are so many fruits that most branches are bending down under the weight. However, this week I noticed that some of the green plums are becoming wrinkled, probably due to the hot weather. I am hoping that after some rain they will recover and continue developing better.

I also have a second variety of plum that finished earlier. Those fruits started turning red more than two weeks ago. I picked about half of them and decided to leave the rest to ripen while I was away on holiday. When I returned, I was shocked to find that almost all the remaining fruit had disappeared. At first, I couldn't understand how or where they had gone, but then I noticed purple stains all over the ground. Within just one week, the heatwave had caused the remaining fruits to fall, and I lost around half of that crop.

Raspberries: My raspberries had a good start this year. Since I was concentrating most of my attention on the strawberries, I didn't give them much care, but they usually don't need much attention anyway. Unfortunately, today I noticed that there are not many fruits left there either, which may also be due to the heatwave.

Apples: My apples are a mixed story. Two plants have produced a very good crop, while another three look unusual and not very healthy (photos attached). Again, I haven't given them much attention this year, so I am not sure what caused the difference between the trees.

Pears: My pears still need better weather conditions, as they are at an earlier stage. Last year they produced an excellent crop, but this year the number of fruits is lower and the trees are not looking as healthy.

Overall, it has not been a great year for my fruit plants. I am based in South East England, and it seems the heatwave has affected many of my crops despite the strong start earlier in the season. I have attached some photos for comparison.

See some pics.

sujsuj

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82074210#Comment_82074210

After consuming last year's strawberries, my household completely stopped buying supermarket strawberries—even the Waitrose ones due to sweetness and freshness of home grown ones . The quality and taste of our own strawberries were simply too good.

That is why this year I expanded the strawberry patch to around ~650 plants and was hoping for a bumper crop. We were even joking that if we ended up with too many strawberries to handle, we should open a stall at Wimbledon, considering how much fruit just 50 plants produced last year!

☹️

Farway

Strawberries, If I understand correctly they are all from four original plants, & you propagated from runners. Could it be they all have a virus now? Unless things have changed it was always said strawberries were good for about three years and then they tended to succumb to virus disease. hence advice was start fresh after 3 years with certified virus free plants. Just a thought, not Gospel

The fruit trees, IMO just short of water, look at the grass around them, dry as a bone. looking at them I'm guessing on dwarfing stock, so very little in way of roots. And small trees like those should not have grass up to the trunks, needs a circle of bare soil to stop competing with the roots. Remove the grass competition and give the trees a good watering, if you can.

Raspberries Unfortunately, today I noticed that there are not many fruits left there either, which may also be due to the heatwave Unless you covered them, birds & squirrels had those

Same may apply to your ripe plums while on holiday, squirrels, or rats, especially

Dustyevsky

sujsuj : Not sure if the way plants propagated reason for low yield..?

I'm not sure either, though I think Farway's virus theory, coupled with difficult conditions, is more likely.

Many years ago, my wife discovered a hybrid plant. The type is unimportant. This plant had astonishing vigour, making it so easy to propagate, I turned one plant into hundreds very fast. The rest of the story involves bad luck and corporate greed in equal measure, but the outcome was that no one made a fortune. By the time the plant came to the public, it was on its umpteenth generation, all from a single source, and the original vigour was waning fast. Today, it no longer exists. Vegetative propagation can go spectacularly wrong!

Farway

Dusty Vegetative propagation can go spectacularly wrong! Bananas are a proof of that.

DYOR but ideal case study, Gros Michel banana succumbed to Panama disease 1950s, all were from same stock.

Gros Michel replaced by Cavendish, our current one. all from same stock, now succumbing world wide to Tropical Race 4

Search is on for another variety to replace Cavendish

If I live a bit longer that will be three bananas and three Monarchs 😁

twopenny

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82074665#Comment_82074665

Now I've had the opposite result. Those in the open with no competition have fruited though have stopped producing flowers as they struggle with the heat.

Those in the shade are just struggling to survive.

However they are different varieties. Are yours all the same variety?

After the last drought I was getting strawberries in the autumn.

And yes, first time ever my established fruit trees are suffering. The heat in my back garden has been up to 50c with norms of 30c because it is enclosed south facing

teaselMay

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82074853#Comment_82074853

I'm hoping to find hybrid vigour among my mishmash of what look to have originally had quite a pedigree strawberries (previuos plot owner's) the foxes and badgers are certainly enjoying them!

Kantankrus_Mare

Ive been growing strawberries for 20 years on my allotment. Started with 12 plants that I bought and gradually increased through runners. I now always have 4 beds on the go with excess runners to renew beds after 3/4 years or I sell them to pay for other allotment costs.

Every year my strawberries have been one of my most productive crops with plenty to freeze which we use though the year to add to yogurt or smoothies etc.

This year we got an initial picking…….lots of flowers and was expecting the usual crop but then we had initial heatwave……..down pours and more heatwaves and the strawberries have just not done anything. Gutted.

Im putting it down to the extremes of weather and will leave beds as are and see what happens next year.

My autumn raspberries look like they will be having a good year though and I have started picking brambles/blackberries for the freezer.

Slinky

We've had strawberries as descendants from 4/6 plants we bought from B&Q about 15 years ago. Never had any problem with virus or lack of vigour. The fruiting varies a bit from year to year depending on the weather and the age of the plants. Have passed on runners to many other people who get good results from them. Never buy strawberries now, ours are superior to anything you can buy.

Raspberries are beginning to have their second round of fruiting. We are watering regularly with cans as they need lots of water.

Our apple trees are a bit mixed, but they are still quite young. Again we are watering, they are espalier trees so it's dry by the wall they are planted against, and there are vigorous trees on the other side of the wall.

There's a lot of water in fruit, if you don't supply it when it's dry, you can't expect good fruit.