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

Suffolk_lass

Like @Farway I work on a three year cycle with strawberries - I used to buy them from Ken Muir but they packed up after the founder died. The advice is based on what they suggested - your split up plants and runners will fruit poorly in year 1, well in year 2 and you should let a few runners root so that you have new runners that fruit poorly the following year - year 3 when your original plants will make lots of runners (try and restrict them to one per stalk or they will all be weedy, and once rooted, remove the stalk, so they are separate plants. I used to buy 12 plants in year 3 to ensure the supply each year was about the same.

Lots of people put the runners into 9cm pots of compost (I have, and used a straightened paper clip to keep the new roots in the soil) - it's a good use for spent tomato compost. Before climate started to affect their growing, they would go dormant over winter and get going in late March or early April - Ken Muir used to keep them in cold store until posting them out in late March - which stops them false starting in February if there is a warm week. For us mere mortals without a cold store, I put them in a shaded place and just heel them in (temporary planting for those unfamiliar with the term) until my destination bed has been weeded, forked over and fresh compost added (this avoids the virus thing). They are quite greedy. I discard the original plants normally after year 3 (I used to know which were which by leaving the originals in situ but my gardener moved everything 2 years ago and they all got mixed up.

This year my crop has been poor too. I put it down to my plants getting mixed up, me being preoccupied with bees (I am a beekeeper) and not fertilising or watering enough. I am now using a 10L can on each of my veg beds every 2-4 days (heat dependant), always in the evening to reduce evaporation and my plants have perked up and started fruiting - small fruits, but I am just keeping them going, not expecting a proper crop.

I note one or two people have interpreted the Temporary Banning Order (hosepipe ban) as a stop watering notice. It is not. This is taken from the Anglian Water FAQ page

"Why can I use a watering can but not my hosepipe? What makes using a hosepipe worse?

The main reason that we have banned the use of hosepipes is because they use a huge amount of water really quickly. The average hosepipe uses at least 15 to 17 litres of water per minute - meaning that using one for just 10 minutes uses more water than the average Anglian Water customer uses in a whole day (around 120 litres). As a result, most of the things you use your hosepipe for are some of the most water intensive activities around the home. - You can still do the activities that you might usually get your hosepipe out for, such as watering your garden or washing the car - we just ask that you use a watering can or a bucket of water instead. This will mean that you're likely to use less water overall while still getting the essentials done."

sheramber

My grandmother always used her used washing up water gto water her roses.

She said the soap in it washed any greenfly off them, as well as the water providing the plants with water.