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Early flowering strawberries

debvdwattjgeG6QandebvdwattjgeG6Qan Posts: 1
in Fruit & veg
Why are my strawberries flowering in April. They did the same last year, and I read up on it and someone suggested removing the flowers and they would flower later when they are supposed to, which of course they didn't. So this year I am at a loss as to why some are flowering earlier than others and what to do. They are in different size containers which don't seem to make a difference  🤷‍♀️ please help.

Posts

  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    I grow perpetual strawberries and I have already been removing flowers this year so I get a better crop of larger berries a bit later in the season (July until Oct). That's the routine for perpetual strawberries. I could leave the flowers on, but then I'd just get loads of small berries.

    Unless your plant is a perpetual strawberry it may not need to have the flowers removed.
    Do you know the variety?
    Welcome to the forum btw :)

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • FlowersFlowersEverywhereFlowersFlowersEverywhere Posts: 48
    I have been wondering the same - @Pete.8 my strawberries that are flowering are from last year (and possibly one or two from the year before), would this make them perpetual?
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    I'm no strawberry expert I'm afraid.
    I decided to buy Mara des Bois (which is a perpetual variety) as my first plants 3 years ago and I'm very impressed with them.
    I'd not grown strawberries before but read it's best to pick off the early flowers of perpetual strawberries until around early/mid-June in order to get much larger berries from Jul-Oct and it's worked for me. I've been removing flowers for about a week now and will carry on doing so for about another 4 weeks.

    Some strawberries fruit early, some mid-season and some late season - as far as I know, you don't remove flowers from these types, only the perpetual types.

    If you know the variety it's easy to look up if they're perpetual strawberries or not.

    Hopefully someone with more experience can advise you.

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    It's not a problem if they are flowering now so long as you don't let the flowers get frosted, as you found out "normal" june barers will not regrow picked flowers, they actually make their flower buds the previous autumn. I can see that my strawberries are just showing their flower buds now. and I'm probably quite a bit colder than you are.
  • charlotte_jarvischarlotte_jarvis Posts: 7
    Mine are too, I have the Eslanta variety which are apparently an early crop? I'm new to growing anything so I'm just hoping to see fruit at some point. It said on the label harvest June-July.
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    FlowersFlowersEverywhere said:
    I have been wondering the same - @Pete.8 my strawberries that are flowering are from last year (and possibly one or two from the year before), would this make them perpetual?
    No, all strawberries are perennial (ie they come back every year) but perpetual (or 'everbearing') strawberry varieties produce flowers and fruit for a much longer period than the normal types which have one crop per season, usually in June.  See here:
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Elsanta is very productive and pretty indestructible. They'll fruit in summer.
    Plenty of food and water helps them produce  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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