Strawberries - small shriveled fruit.

Hi all, for the last couple of years I've bought what look like healthy strawberry plants (Florence) from GC, they grow fine but they hardly ever produce decent fruit.

I put them 3 to a 12L pot in compost outside, water well, but I only get the odd decent (say 1 or 2 20mm fruit) per plant. The rest range from say 10-15mm. Then they produce healthy runners.

Am I doing anything wrong and do they need a certain regime?

If I plant up the runners, what do I do with them them over winter e.g. leave outside or put in greenhouse etc.?

Cheers!

 

Hi,

Could be one or more of several things.


3 plants in a small pot of typical MPC will dry out very easily, giving small fruit.
Would try just one plant to a 12Ltr pot and use 50% of garden soil to 50% of compost.

Are there plenty of bees around when they are in flower ? Poor pollination can lead to small fruits, you can hand pollinate with a soft make up type of brush.

Once the flowers have just set fruit do you water well and use a high potash ( tomato feed) fertiliser ?

In spring when starting to regrow the leaves should look green and lush, are yours ?
Worth checking the roots for Vine Weevil which love MPC and Stawbs.

Strawbs are only good for 3-4 years and will then give poorer crops if not replaced with new plants.

You could try some other varieties, yours might be poor stock ?

We just leave rooted runners outside all winter, though runners or fully grown plants can be taken into the greenhouse to give a forced early crop, but again you may need to hand pollinate.

 

Cheers @ricky101

I tend to water regularly but as you say with 3 to a pot they would dry out quicker if I left it for a few days.

Should have plenty of pollinators as I try to plant mainly bee friendly flowers.

I'd not fed them as I assumed (probably wrongly) the compost would have enough feed in until they'd set the fruit.

From memory yes when they came back they looked green.

Good suggestions though I'll keep them one to a pot (even the runners over winter) in 50/50 and apply more feed like you say.

Oh I went for Florence just on the taste and texture; the garden centre had about 8 varieties and this was head and shoulders for me, the others seemed bland or tart.

Ta!

 

Multi purpose compost is quite nutrient poor. That plus the regular watering cos of the recent heat would have washed some of the water soluble nutrients out. I reckon they are starving.

 

Florence is one of our best sellers.




These are in 9cm pots in compost manufactured by ourselves. We pot them in hanging basket compost which is 70% peat and 10% each of bark, loam and grit, we also use 6 month slow release fertiliser.

We normally recommend 3 plants to a 12L pot, if they purchase our Hanging Basket Compost, then there is no need to feed, except for maybe a small dose of potash when fruiting.

If you have used MPC, the 3 plants have probably used all the available nutrients in the compost, you should of been giving them a feed every 2/3 weeks.

 

Some good advice Cheers all, will need to update my gardening notebook.