Author Topic: No strawberries  (Read 2067 times)

Borlotti

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No strawberries
« on: June 20, 2018, 18:56:27 »
Thought with all this sun and hot weather would have some strawberries, but no.  Picked some redcurrants to make jelly, what a pain that is.  Raspberries not too good either.  Found a few apples on one side of the Bramley apple tree which is good as thought it was having a rest this year after loads and loads last year.  Gooseberries doing well, and did some watering.  Plum tree looks ok, and the Coxs apple tree has apples on.

small

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Re: No strawberries
« Reply #1 on: June 21, 2018, 15:59:10 »
My raspberries are looking fine, had a couple of pickings already, but the strawberries - I just can't keep the birds out. I've pegged netting every foot around the bed, but still they are getting at the fruit somehow, so disappointing, I'm going to put the whole lot on the compost heap and go to Aldi if I want strawberries. Pah!

ancellsfarmer

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Re: No strawberries
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2018, 21:36:09 »
My raspberries are looking fine, had a couple of pickings already, but the strawberries - I just can't keep the birds out. I've pegged netting every foot around the bed, but still they are getting at the fruit somehow, so disappointing, I'm going to put the whole lot on the compost heap and go to Aldi if I want strawberries. Pah!
Tack your netting to a board so that the weight holds it to the ground. Assuming you can access on just one side, lightly bury the boards on the remaining sides. Roll up the unburied side to pick and then relay. Simples!
Freelance cultivator qualified within the University of Life.

jennym

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Re: No strawberries
« Reply #3 on: June 21, 2018, 22:23:47 »
You don't say what netting you're using, but I find debris netting the best. I secure two adjacent sides with cheap U pins, and put boards or bricks over the other 2 sides; these are the sides I pull up to pick from.

Vinlander

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Re: No strawberries
« Reply #4 on: June 22, 2018, 12:18:36 »
When I find undamaged bird netting isn't working the culprits usually turn out to be mice.

Cheers.

PS. My strawberries started well but now they are either small and hard or small and soggy (different varieties). I think the dry and hot weather is to blame (respectively). I hate watering strawberries with a hose because all the sweetness is on the outside of the fruit, but they are so few and so poor that I might have to.
With a microholding you always get too much or bugger-all. (I'm fed up calling it an allotment garden - it just encourages the tidy-police).

The simple/complex split is more & more important: Simple fertilisers Poor, complex ones Good. Simple (old) poisons predictable, others (new) the opposite.

winecap

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Re: No strawberries
« Reply #5 on: June 24, 2018, 13:44:17 »
With regard to birds eating strawberries, I usually do net mine, but as I sat on my bench and listened to the blackbird singing behind me, I decided that if I hadn't grown enough strawberries for me and the blackbirds, then I just hadn't grown enough strawberries. So I have dispensed with the net this year and I'm eating strawberries two or three times a day. Indeed I have strawberry milkshake in hand as I type! My thought though is that with five rows of strawberries, with eleven plants in each row, I have 55 plants, plus a few runners from last year which landed such that I didn't see to pull them up last autumn. Maybe the way to go is to grow more than the birds can eat! On the other hand, I have had more trouble from rats in the past, even catching them under the net a few times, but I responded to that by moving the entire bed to a more open part of my plot. I don't think rodents like to go far from cover. 

BockingWill

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Re: No strawberries
« Reply #6 on: June 24, 2018, 14:08:31 »
Deer eat the whole crop including leaves before they were anywhere near ripe.

AnnieD

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Re: No strawberries
« Reply #7 on: June 24, 2018, 15:18:36 »
With regard to birds eating strawberries, I usually do net mine, but as I sat on my bench and listened to the blackbird singing behind me, I decided that if I hadn't grown enough strawberries for me and the blackbirds, then I just hadn't grown enough strawberries. So I have dispensed with the net this year and I'm eating strawberries two or three times a day. Indeed I have strawberry milkshake in hand as I type! My thought though is that with five rows of strawberries, with eleven plants in each row, I have 55 plants, plus a few runners from last year which landed such that I didn't see to pull them up last autumn. Maybe the way to go is to grow more than the birds can eat! On the other hand, I have had more trouble from rats in the past, even catching them under the net a few times, but I responded to that by moving the entire bed to a more open part of my plot. I don't think rodents like to go far from cover.

That's my philosophy too. Mine have gone wild this year, been picking a tub full every time I go. A few get eaten, but I'm quite happy to share them when I have so many.
Located in Royston, North Herts.

Paulh

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Re: No strawberries
« Reply #8 on: June 24, 2018, 22:57:10 »
Onthe site there are plots with unnetted strawberry beds where the fruit is ripe, bright red and untouched; at home if the birds and squirrels (plus mice?) try to reach through the netting to get the fruit when it is still unripe.

 

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