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Do these self-pollinate, or do they need insect pollination?

Fairly certain they are pollinated...
:-\ (by insects)

I've a feeling they are. I'm wondering about growing them under cover for an early crop, that's why I asked.

definitely insect pollinated

we do the same, we've just taken the plastic off to replace it with netting..I was told not to worry about bees pollinating them as even ground beetles do  ;D

In that case, I'd need to take the cloche off as they came into flower. How far have yours got?

i have flowers on some of my plants  :o

Flowers here as well and they are in the open

I aqree with the insect pollintated theory.

We have brought our strawberry plants into the greenhouse in order to get an early crop.  It is an unheated greenhouse,

I have been told to leave the door open to allow the 'humbly bumblies' in to get at the flowers.

valmarg

ours are massive, bit leggy but coping..lots of flowers, I'm taking pics tomorrow so I'll post one  :)

wind pollinated plants have long tasselled things. like sweetcorn tassells. strawberries don't need pollinting to produce more plants ,they reproduce by runners. i have no idea about producing strawberries tho, my challenge has not been producing them, its always been stopping the birds and the slugs from eating them!!

Funnily enough there was some discussion of strawberry pollination on a beekeeping site yesterday. Apparently some US growers pay beekeepers to put their hives on strawberry fields for pollination, and they use bumblebees in polytunnels. So they're definitely cross-pollinated.

The farm I used to work on put bumble bee (colonies?) in their tunnells, this is done at considerable cost as they die after a couple of months. Now it may be that this is just to improve pollination & you'd get something without (you know that when you get hard green, uneven bits on the side, that is from poor pollination, and is why you see it more on earlier strawbs). But yes, you defo need a bit of bee action down there!

state of play today  ;D
excuse the weeds  :)

Looks as though it would be worth putting some early ones under a cloche for an early crop.

could you go round with a blusher brush and do the job yourself?  ??? or is that just cheating? im sure its how mendel did his peas.....

You can but it's an awful palaver. I don't mind doing a little bit to provide early berries, but the wife's going to yam most of them anyway, apart from the ones I eat on the plot of course, and there are limits to what I'll do!

lol fair enough!! was thinking if it was only a few but it sounds like its more, lol! either way am leaving mine out theyre flowering nicely so im not going to disturb them :) the bees are busy as theyre next to the keria so theyre drawn in by that if nothing else, lol, fingers crossed however we do it that we all get a good crop of berrys! i suspect my kids will chobble mine, the oh is allergic but the kids ADORE fruit and dd especially loves strawberrys! i dont think ill get a look in some how!!

loopyloulou - we visited a big indoor greenhouse once & he used a rabbits tail to pollinate strawberries - you need to be very gentle apparently!

Manics - the runners you sent me are starting to form trusses - 2 or 3 per plant, so I reckon a fortnight behind yours. They've had no protection but it's down south. I didn't think they'd be this early!

How long do you need to leave the greenhouse doors open for, to get pollination ?
I left them open for one day would that be enough ?