Topic: Flummoxed by Strawberries

[vague]

Hi all.  Just wondered how people's strawberry harvest have been this year? 
This is the second year on my strawberries, the plants have grown large and healthy, and I have remembered to net them this year!  What Im a little confused about is they all flowered well, and at the beginning on the season they were full of large unripe strawberries.  I have tried to  water them regularly and checked on them, however I have only managed to harvest around 3 strawberries out of the 30 plants I have!!! I have used slug pellets around the paths and haven't seen any slug tracks....and the netting is still in tact.  Was even wondering if the erratic heat waves we keep having have vaporised them!!
I hate to jump to conclusions just yet, but I thought if anyone else have had similar problems?  I thought I did everything right this year.

[Robert_Brenchley]

What size mesh netting are you using?

[squeezyjohn]

Mice and voles here ... someone told me that they can squeeze through a gap 6mm thin the other day ... and that's without the ability to tunnel under as well.

Mine were massacred by some kind of mini-rodents ... I managed to get a small jam run in before they descended but everything after that disappeared.

[jimc]

How big do your strawberries get before they disappear?
The answer could be they abort soon after flowering or fruit set due to season heat, cold wet or dry or otherwise just shrivel up due to the same reasons later in their growth. Or some disease such as fungus or pest such as mites or aphids could destroy the fruit during their growth period. Or some big animal or bird that can get through your netting. I had to net my patch about 8 years ago to keep out fruit loving birds. I still have the odd sweet tooth blue tongue lizard (I am in Oz) that can get through under the wire and I know mice will do the same.
How about humans who are not so honest when they see a sweet juicy fruit on the other side of netting when there is no one watching?

[Borlotti]

My strawberries did OK this year.  They were growing among grass as I didn't weed around them, I also didn't net them and the birds left them alone, think they overdosed on the redcurrants.  I didn't water them as thought the sunny weather would help the fruit ripen.  Maybe I was just lucky, and the hot weather here helped.  Had about 2 weeks picking and then that was it, but enough for jam. Some of the fruit bushes etc. on the neglected plots that people have given up do better than mine, so annoying. I am no expert, but maybe it was too much water, who knows.

[vague]

My netting was probably about 2in square, like the green pea netting you get, so not particularly fine.  I thought it would just be enough to deter the birds. I take it it time to invest in something finer.
The fruit started off large,  when unripe but they seemed to have gotten fairly small when starting to go red....and then they disappear.

We have had very sporadic weather in the southeast, extremely hot weather followed by torrential rain so maybe that hasn't helped. And to be honest the wildlife does appear to infiltrate to most secure of cages!

Thanks for everybodies posts! This gardening malarkey always springs up new challenges each year!