Strawberry plants flower but no fruit develops

Hello, I planted some strawberry plants last spring and they flowered but no edible fruit developed, only very small tight 'balls' of seeds with zero flesh. Foliage growth was good last year with many runners produced. I have flowers again this year and the plants are very healthy with no signs of disease. Any ideas whether I will be more successful this year? Does anyone know if you get wild non-fruiting strawberry plants, which may be what I have ended up with.... see below!

Other info: I live in Vienna, so climate is very different from the UK. I took the strawberry plants from a local wood so they are a true wild variety (yes I know that's not the done thing but (a) real, wild strawbs taste so much better than cultivated ones and more importantly (b) I took them from a patch where they were pretty rampant so I was only thinning them).

Thanks!

 

Hi Vienna
Im no expert, but I reckon your problem is you have taken the plants from their natural environment and they are just not suited to cultivate in our gardens.
They have probable been developing their own gene pool over many generations of growth in the woods and really need to be back there.

Just a thought.. I may be completly wrong...often am..
Robert

 

Thanks Robert,

Could be exactly the reason..... they were growing in a shaded area with a poor soil, and are now in a richer soil, sunnier position and with a higher summer daytime max temp. Worth experimenting, as thats the best way to learn, but maybe I'm fated to have just propagated the plants without any reward. Could be just desserts, of course, for obtaining them from the wild in the first place and perhaps I should return them this year to improve my karma.

 

They may well fruit this year, I put some new strawberries in last year...bought as bare root stock.

They put on lots of growth and flowers but no fruit to speak of...maybe a small bowlfull from 10 plants and plenty of runners. So I'm expecting a bountiful harvest from them this year.

Steve...

 

Yes Im with you on this Steve. Mine are now a mix of first and second year and are looking healthy in a couple of those strawberry grow bag thingies that hold about 20 plants... First flowers are set already.
They really seemed to have injoyed a chicken pellet munure feed...!

 

Could you possibly have this plant???

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potentilla_sterilis

What I'm saying is, are the plants in the patch that you took your plants from, producing fruit???

 

Quite an interesting article here >

http://chestofbooks.com/flora-plant...owers-1/Wild-Strawberry-Fragaria-Vesca-L.html

 

Thanks for the links, Pete and Dave.

My plant doesent look exactly like Potentialla sterilis - leaves different and bigger plants, but I'm wondering if I have a very similar species. In fact, the plants and leaves are much bigger than a typical wild British strawberry anyway (given the pictures in your link, Dave W) so I'll find out in a few weeks if I have a load of duds! I havent been back to the exact site where I gathered the plants at a time when they were fruiting so I dont know what they are doing in the wild but it may be worth a trip there to compare.