Topic: Strawberries

[Golach]

New plot is underway and a lot less work thanks to our council cutting down all the long grass.  I'm planning on growing two types of strawberries - Malling Opal and Mara des Bois - both Dobies plants and intend to have them in separate beds.  However, my brother tells me not to pick the fruit in the first year.  Is this right?  Was looking forward to fresh strawbs and cream, home made strawberry ice cream and homemade jam...

[Tee Gee]

tells me not to pick the fruit in the first year.

I think this is slightly wrong, I think what he means is: if you allow the fruit to grow it can weaken the plant/s but as I recall if it gets to the fruiting stage then this is too late. 

What I think he is thinking of  is removing the flowers and this will stop fruiting thus allowing the plants to put all their effort in to leaf and root growth.

Personally I just let them fruit and enjoy them.

I think that tale is perhaps commercially based as it is well known that second year plants generally produce the most fruit and this is what the commercial people want.

I work a three year plan where in the first year I get a reasonable crop and in the second year I get a bumper crop then in subsequent years the crops reduce so after year two I root runners and planting them meaning that I alway have one,two,three year plants on the go!

Does anyone else agree?

[kGarden]

I think it depends on the plants you buy, If they have been cold stored / "conditioned" to fruit in X-weeks from purchase/planting then they are fine. Other than that for anything planted after late Autumn I would take the flowers off (RHS says:

"Remove flowers from spring-planted strawberries in the first season to encourage their roots to establish"
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=306

Personally I always favour plant development over the longer term rather than quick-gain in the short term.  I don't let new Top Fruit carry any fruit early in its life (other than one or two just so I can check that the was labelled correctly!), and in general I do the same for soft fruit - I wouldn't buy Raspberry "long canes" to get a [Summer fruiting] crop in the first season, I'd chop them right down so they concentrated on producing roots and suckers for 2nd season onwards.

Personally I would buy from a specialist soft fruit grower - I do wonder where "seed merchants" get the plants they sell from, when I've bought from them it is often with substitutions and delivery date imprecise which makes be think they sub-contract that business out, or buy-in to order, whereas from a specialist grower they are freshly lifted straight from field to customer.

The supplier I use doesn't have the varieties you mention, and are no longer shipping plants for this season anyway, but for comparison their prices are 85p each (Dobbies seem to be £1.08)

Some particular reason for those varieties?  They don't seem to be commonly available, I tried these sites and only Pomona Fruits had them I think??

http://www.kenmuir.co.uk/index.php?route=product/category&path=80_117
http://www.pomonafruits.co.uk/strawberry-plants
https://www.blackmoor.co.uk/category/197
http://www.hargreavesplants.com/strawberries.asp

[Digeroo]

I think it depends on the size of the plants.  If they are a good size then I let them fruit the first year.  The runners I root myself have  a whole litre pot full of roots and crop well their first year.

[ancellsfarmer]

[/quote]
I work a three year plan where in the first year I get a reasonable crop and in the second year I get a bumper crop then in subsequent years the crops reduce so after year two I root runners and planting them meaning that I alway have one,two,three year plants on the go!

Does anyone else agree?
[/quote]

Totally.
 The tried and tested twist is to take runners into 3" pots of enriched compost beside the parent two year row. Allow to grow on until October and then snap the "umbelical". Move the pots into a cold frame, weed if necessary and lightly feed with hoof and horn. Lightly water until mid January . Repot into 1 litre pots Clean up the plants, removing all brown leaves, dried runner cord and any debris. Position in cool greenhouse and nurture. When you see the flower buds forming, decide if you have any pollinator insects about (dependent on year) and either  move back outside to a frame with liftable light top or prepare to artificially pollinate with a rabbit scut or soft camel hair brush. They should give you a modest crop in May, or early June.
These can then be used to provide a new row or two to the strawberry patch, signalling the time to scrap the oldest row.I would plant these out late August-September.

[antipodes]

As I find that strawberries need replacing every three or four years at a push, seems silly not to pick the fruit for a whole year! Once you get going, I have always planted a few plants every year, then when the old ones get tired, you still have a crop!
Feed them well the first year once they flower, and you should be able to pick the fruit. I too think it was a commercial consideration. They always give the most fruit in their second and third years anyway.

[Golach]

Thanks for all your replies.  Reason for these types of strawberries - Malling Opal is described as a prolific cropper and Mara des Bois - I liked the look of and the description.  My brother used Dobies for years and always found their seeds and plants to be good.  I'm pretty much a novice gardener so a lot is trial and error with me at the moment.

Hoping the weather is good this weekend as I have 4 days off work - fingers crossed.

[bluecar]

As I find that strawberries need replacing every three or four years at a push, seems silly not to pick the fruit for a whole year! Once you get going, I have always planted a few plants every year, then when the old ones get tired, you still have a crop!
Feed them well the first year once they flower, and you should be able to pick the fruit. I too think it was a commercial consideration. They always give the most fruit in their second and third years anyway.

What's the best feed Antipodes?

Regards

Bluecar

[Gordonmull]

I can't say I've had any problems with them fruiting in the first year. When I started gardening I was doing everything "properly" and I'm not getting any worse yields now. What I also note is advice not to allow runners in first year plants and restrict each plant to producing only a few suckers. Usually my 1st year plants give the most runners and I struggle to get many at all from 2nd and 3rd year. THAT would be a commercial thing, probably!

This year I'm going to try letting the plants to the management - a whole bed of strawbs are going in the ground on a 6" spacing and I'll just let them do their thing apart from weeding. No messing, nature will take its course. Probably headed for disaster but hey-ho, I've got something like 200 plants knocking about so I should be OK.

One of the things I love about strawbs - those all came from 12 plants.