Bumper strawberry crop?

zerodashzero

Hello! I've just been given a couple of strawberry plants & wondered if I need to do anything "special" with them to guarantee a bumper crop? I think I read somewhere about removing some of the new flower buds to encourage better growth? (But that might have had nothing to do with strawbs?!) Any advice would be welcomed! Ta!

Farway

You may not get a good crop this year, the plants will need to build up their root system & settle in, next year wil be your good year

Tha advice about removing flowers this year is to allow the plant to use all it's energy into building up for next year

personally I would let them "do their own thing" this year, not debud, and eat what is provided

later on the strawbs will send out "runners" you will need to limit these and use them to increase your stock.

zerodashzero

Thank you! To be honest, letting them do their own thing was my first instinct (but I think that was pure laziness on my part!). I've been really excited by each new bud appearing (sad, I know), so I really didn't want to have to take them all off! Ta!

steady__eddie

I bought half a dozen Honeyoye from Wilko last year and nipped the flowers off as and when they appeared. Now they have got shedloads of fruit on, at least 20 on each plant so far. Will the plant support this amount of fruit or should I thin them out a bit ? I'm watering them daily and feeding with Wilko's equivalent of Phostrogen weekly as they're in my greenhouse.
I wished I had got the other 2 varieties that were on offer last year but by the time that I had received my wages, they only had Honeyoye left
When I got 6 plants from Aldi a few weeks ago, the buds have been removed as soon as they appeared, roll on next year.:j

zerodashzero

Well, at least I didn't dream the advice about removing buds!

I'm torn by what to do though - I do have a habit of killing plants, so I can't guarantee if I remove all the buds that the plants will even survive until next year!

I've no idea what variety they are - my parents donated them from their garden (so they're young but not "baby" plants) and they will be going into pots on a balcony (which is how I manage to kill things - they can't be left to their own devices in the ground).

Having a look at them this evening, it looks as though I'll get a couple of quids worth of strawberries from the buds appearing so far. What would happen if I went 50/50? That way I'd still get a few strawbs!

Zazen999

Hi

Strawbs are hardy, and will survive if in the ground all winter.

Keeping them in pots means that you have to gauge watering, and you restrict their root development. If you go away in the summer for a few days, and they don't get watered and shrivel up; they might not recover. We had 2 hot days here and my potted ones dies and never came back; we were in rainy Scarborough at the time and there were literally only 2 hot days here and they were nearly black when we came home.

If you want to hedge your bets, pop them in the ground, but cover the ground with some weed fabric and pop their heads through, and leave one to flower and produce this year, and take the buds off the other for a better crop next year. Just make sure you water them during the summer, best bet is to water at the base of the plant, in the morning on days that are going to be above 20deg C.

When the runners appear, you can cut a hole in the fabric, and using a paperclip, pin down the runner so that it can root. As soon as it roots, and a gentle tug doesn't shift it [give it a good few weeks], cut it from the main plant. Your strawb stock will start to grow every year then.

zerodashzero

Thanks for the advice! Unfortunately my only option is pots - I live in a flat. But I'll put them into large ones to give them more room. After watering them last night the plants have seemed to doubled in size!

I'd forgotten about the runners making new plants, so thank you for reminding me and letting me know how to cultivate them.

It hadn't even crossed my mind to debud one plant & let the other make strawbs (even when I mentioned 50/50!) - I can't believe I missed something so obvious! I guess sometimes I just can't see the wood for the trees...

Zazen999

That's what we are here for!!!

Good luck.

RachieD

Hiya

I am just starting to get to grips with my huge garden - and have bought some strawberry plants. Would I better to plant these in a growbag in my mini greenhouse/cloche type thing or into a tub and leave them outside (or keep them in the cloche? I live in the Highlands of Scotland and my garden is quite exposed.

Ta for any advice.

RachieD

Paulo

I have a few strawberry plants, should any runners between them be cut or just left? Some of the plant are quite small.

nodwah

RachieD wrote: »

Hiya

I am just starting to get to grips with my huge garden - and have bought some strawberry plants. Would I better to plant these in a growbag in my mini greenhouse/cloche type thing or into a tub and leave them outside (or keep them in the cloche? I live in the Highlands of Scotland and my garden is quite exposed.

Ta for any advice.

RachieD

Strawbs and other fruit like raspberries need a good cold period in the winter as part of their life cycle. If you want to bring them on earlier in the summer you can put them under cover but otherwise as long as they're in sun they should crop fine. I'm in a fairly chilly spot in Scotland too. Just watch out for late frosts as they will make the fruit buds go black and fall off, cover with fleece or even newspaper if you think it'll get cold at night. When you get fruit cover them with netting as the blackbirds will scoff the lot of them.