Author Topic: strawberries  (Read 2659 times)

ACE

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strawberries
« on: June 26, 2016, 15:06:53 »
I have never known so many. I got half a dozen plants last year and just let them go to runners without picking any and the birds fed on them. using the old fashioned method I put a stone over every plantlet and when they rooted put them in rows to make up the strawberry bed. This year I have netted them and I am having a job keeping up with the supply. Jam is made and strawberry flans etc are now getting tiresome. So todays pickings are in the dehydrator and nicely crisping up to store and use on the morning branflakes. If I do that all this week we should have enough to last the year out. Then I might be in the mood for another flan. It also looks like it is going the same way with my blackcurrants, this is their first year of cropping, as all I have done with them so far is to keep nipping out the tops to make very bushy plants. Goosegogs are a failure though plants dying and the tiniest fruit I have ever seen.

strawberry1

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Re: strawberries
« Reply #1 on: June 26, 2016, 18:45:14 »
lots this year but were much better and larger last year. I have eaten lots but also mushed and frozen in small pots for all over winter. I can`t be doing with all that ground level stuff now, that and competing with slugs, picking under nets and having to pick every day before they turn to mush. I am replacing with polka raspberries, oh the bliss of standing up to pick my berries

ladycosmos

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Re: strawberries
« Reply #2 on: June 26, 2016, 20:07:16 »
You have more luck than me with the strawberries. Last year I had 6 rows and I decided to pull them up, older than 3 years) and I put the little new ones in 6 new rows. But we have had so much rain here.... and I never have seen them before.... so many snails..... grgrgr :BangHead: so there is not much left.....

Obelixx

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Re: strawberries
« Reply #3 on: June 26, 2016, 20:14:58 »
Mushy strawberries here too in all this rain.  I've been cooking them with rhubarb for puds, having the firmer ones for breakfast and today made a load of jam.  Lots more still to come - if the slugs leave any!
Obxx - Vendée France

tricia

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Re: strawberries
« Reply #4 on: June 26, 2016, 20:34:06 »
I only have 12 Elsanta plants (from Lidl). They are large healthy plants with dozens of runners but comparatively few fruits, but even those I am picking as soon as they turn pink. If I leave them to ripen the slugs and snails get them. I find they ripen almost overnight on the kitchen window sill.

My problem is that the plants are in long trugs on stands so there is little space to anchor the runners to give me more plants for next year   :BangHead:.

Tricia  :wave:

Crystalmoon

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Re: strawberries
« Reply #5 on: June 27, 2016, 08:48:24 »
Hi everyone, I'm on a new plot this year where we are only allowed 20% of the plot to have fruit in the ground so my raspberries have taken up this allowance so I planted strawberries in lots of pots & put copper tape around each pot...loads of fruit with no slug damage has been the result. I haven't even netted the strawberries yet as the birds don't seem to have spotted them yet. I put straw around the tops of all the pots which is helping to reduce mussiness from all the torrential rain we have been having here in Kent. The only problem I did get with the pots was ants moving in so I did have to put a mix of borax & icing sugar into plastic bottles in the area of the pots which seems to have worked very well. So after being initially annoyed that I couldn't have a more traditional strawberry bed I am actually really pleased with the results I'm getting with the pots & it is so much easier to pick the fruit. But I haven't worked out yet how to secure the runners in mid air into small pots to get my new plants...think it may be an impossible task unless I surround each pot with upturned pots I can use to put the small pots on to root the runners...haven't got enough pots to actually do this but am thinking about buying some. Does anyone think this will work? x   

squeezyjohn

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Re: strawberries
« Reply #6 on: June 27, 2016, 09:08:59 »
I'm having an awful strawberry year ... all this wet weather.  The strawberries are slow to ripen and don't get sweet even when they're red due to lack of sunshine.  So many have gone mouldy or been attacked by slugs and ants ... it's hardly been worth the bother.

sparrow

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Re: strawberries
« Reply #7 on: June 27, 2016, 10:55:42 »
I've only just started harvesting mine. They are really slow this year with the cold and the wet. I do need to replace mine this year I think - the berries are fairly small tho there are many.

Paulines7

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Re: strawberries
« Reply #8 on: June 27, 2016, 11:32:58 »
When we had strawberries in the ground, they were eaten by slugs and snails and weeds grew up through the netting. We gave up on growing them. 

However, when we were out one day, we found a garden centre that also had "pick your own strawberries".  Their plants were in grow bags and up on a structure about 3ft from the ground.  We copied this idea and built our own structure.  It has been a huge success and we now have a wonderful supply of strawberries.   :icon_cheers:  Slugs and snails are nowhere to be seen and we have netting that clips on to the sides yet lifts up to give easy access to the fruit. 

Obelixx

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Re: strawberries
« Reply #9 on: June 27, 2016, 12:17:33 »
Any chance of a photo?  I'm thinking of my next strawberry bed not being earthbound.
Obxx - Vendée France

Redalder

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Re: strawberries
« Reply #10 on: June 27, 2016, 13:59:58 »
Same as Squeezyjohn, I am having an awful strawberry year - too much wet, no sun,  slugs everywhere. They took ages to get into growth and most of the runners did not make it. Luckily the rasps are doing really well!

Tee Gee

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Re: strawberries
« Reply #11 on: June 27, 2016, 16:41:35 »
A pretty normal year this year and as always my fruit becomes ready for picking in Wimbledon Week.

Sadly I never get any Champagne!


ps I will be replacing two thirds of my plants this year once I have rooted enough runners.

Borlotti

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Re: strawberries
« Reply #12 on: June 27, 2016, 17:28:42 »
Fed up with strawberries, given loads away and made jam.  Today not too good as the rain, slugs had got them.  I did buy a bottle of Pimms from Morrisons for £10, so maybe can watch it whilst watching TV soon.  I know I shouldn't say this but I can't stand Murray and hope he loses.  I like Jamie better, and can't stand his Mum.  Sorry, completely off topic and I expect I will get shot down in flames.  Made strawberry jam with a few raspberries (which are rubbish this year) and some red currants from last year out of the freezer, had it yesterday for my BIRTHDAY, with scones and Cornish cream, yum, yum.  Picked a load of gooseberries today, but not sure what I want to do with them.  I have seen strawberries being grown, whilst out on a walk, in tables above the ground and it does seem a good idea.  All in all this year think I have been growing to fed the pigeons, snails and whatever.  No peas have come up, only sweet peas.  Wonder how the farmers are coping with all this rain.  Think this may be the first year I have no courgettes to eat, or give away.  Maybe we will have an Indian summer.

Paulh

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Re: strawberries
« Reply #13 on: June 27, 2016, 20:35:38 »
I'm sure the Murrays wish you well for your birthday, Borlotti.

I grow my strawberries in pots and, to answer the original question, I root runners either into spaces or into 3" pots or similar to grow on and put into spaces when large enough.

ladycosmos

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Re: strawberries
« Reply #14 on: June 27, 2016, 22:39:33 »
Strawberries I still have growing in the ground but tomatoes, courgettes, peppers and chilies I grow in big pots. Never desease problems and a lot of fruit.....

 

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