Should I move my strawberry plants now?

Ilikeplants · May 2021

I have many in the borders forming fruits or in flower now but last year fruits got eaten by mice, squirrels, birds, slugs. So should I dig them up into pots and under cover now until they finish fruiting and then stick them back into the border after?

Fairygirl · May 2021

Slugs will still eat them even if undercover. All you can do is remove any that you see, and avoid having them touch the ground, or anything else nearby so that they can't use it as a bridge to access them. A cage of netting will keep off birds etc, but it's one of those things you often have to accept. Wildlife enjoys a crop as much as you do

'Our' mice eat the bird food by accessing the bird cages, so they don't really touch anything else. The slugs also eat any of it left on the ground.

Nanny Beach · May 2021

We have ours growing in a raised bed, covered with gravel, used to use straw,gets covered with fine netting when the fruit ripens

Ilikeplants · May 2021

Wish I was more organised but my strawberries are dotted all over the place in various flower borders so checking for slugs would be a huge hassle. Probably squirrels, mice and birds are the main culprits though so I should move the plants carefully now to somewhere more open and then cage or net it?

Fairygirl · May 2021

If you have room, it might be worth doing it.
I always pick them before they get ripe, and ripen indoors. The slugs are less likely to take them before they're ripe.

Ilikeplants · May 2021

I’ve never thought to pick them unripe @Fairygirl, I have some creature that picks unripe ones and piles it in a little corner under shrubs etc. I’m thinking mice?

Fairygirl · May 2021

Yes - could be. Mice often stack stuff up.

Biglad · May 2021

I find that I get less damage on the strawberry plants that I have in containers/planters.

Other than that, a regular midnight Cyril/Brian patrol is all I can recommend

Ilikeplants · May 2021

I’m thinking same @Biglad - my crop last year was really poor so hoping for better this time and that the plants don’t mind if I lift them now into containers. They can go back into the ground for winter.

barry island · May 2021

Growing strawberries on the allotment seems to be a waste of time as they get eaten by birds and mice, slimed on by slugs and are always at their ripest when I'm not there to pick them. I grow them at home now in containers which sit on a cast metal table which gets covered in netting when the fruit starts to ripen, as for picking the fruit when unripe have you ever eaten freshly ripe sun warmed strawberries there's nothing like the taste.

BobTheGardener · May 2021

I wouldn't move any fruit plant which is in flower now. In terms of plant physiology, it's the worst possible time, and you will lose at least some crop, so I think trying to protect them is a more viable option. Strawberries are a bit of a pain to grow tbh. If I grow them in pots, they get vine weevils, usually in their 2nd year, and in the ground it's slugs, mice and blackbirds, the latter of which obviously feel a need to 'test' every single fruit.

If I had more space, I'd simply grow more plants and take the losses, so I've compromised by netting a patch in the ground and will take the mouse and slug losses, which are lower than blackbird peckings.

The joys of nature and being a gardener, eh!

Should I move my strawberry plants now?

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