Strawberries and how I do them.

Skandi · June 2023

I grow what would be considered micro commercial amounts of strawberries, so in high season I get up to 30 punnets a day. but 10 is more common for about 6 weeks. We grow in plastic, it is all layed by hand with a spade (thank you husband!) compost from green waste is spread over the bed under the plastic.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030279/uploads/editor/91/p345baidho11.png

The holes are then burnt with a very high tech combination of hot coals and bent gutter holders.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030279/uploads/editor/f3/j5mi591jk862.png

Bare root stawberries are then planted, we keep each planting for 3-4 years, the plants on the Right are first year Rumba, bought as A3 plants so they produce in their first year, the plants on the Left are second year Allegro plants they were A2 and did not produce last year, mainly due to a lack of watering.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030279/uploads/editor/3v/wk9c7nm8dt3c.png

I have 1200 plants this year which is a bit low, we aim for 1500 but it varies depending on which rows are producing and which are not.

I don't fertilise at all after the original compost, we do water while the plants are new and when they are in fruit, they get a hair cut with the lawn mower after they are finished fruiting and we go through and remove runners at the same time. We don't get record results of course, but we do get more than I want to pick!

barry island · June 2023

That's impressive do you have any problems with pests if I don't net my modest crop of strawberries the birds eat or damage the fruit?

Skandi · June 2023

Oh yes, in the bottom photo you can see a random bit of blue, that's a blue rubbish bag ripped open and tied to a pole, I also have pieces of cardboard covered in foil tied to strings on poles, so they swing and flash in the wind. I don't normally have a huge issue with birds this early in the season, but I didn't put out my red stones this year. I normally put out a lot of red painted stones just as the strawberries start to flower, I find it gives about 2 weeks protection from birds before they learn that the new red stones (strawberries) are in fact edible. This year they have even been taking the green ones. We stopped that by putting out a large water bowl they can drink from instead.

In a normal year I lose more to slugs than birds, but with this year being so dry they have not been a problem. I did hit them hard early on in the year with organic slug pellets, and we do do nightly collections if they start to get excessive.

Obelixx · June 2023

That does look impressive @Skandi. I think we'll have to try something similar here for ours as the crop has been poor this year and we do much prefer our own strawberries to bought ones.

Strawberries and how I do them.

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