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Strawberries Dropping Off
I have a bed of strawberries which are now in their third year. Normally I get loads of lovely strawberries but this year I am finding lots of green strawberries on the ground. I keep them watered regularly. Also in the same bed I have a blackcurrant bush, gooseberry bush and thornless blackberry from which I get fruit. The bed is covered by a net to keep the birds off. I must have lost about 7 or 8 lbs of strawberries so far. Would welcome any ideas on what could be going wrong.
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How is the netting secured?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I don,t think it is squirrels Welshonion as they are under netting in the form of a fruit cage, there is nowhere that the squirrel could get in!
Dovefromabove the netting is very securely stapled on to wooden posts in the form of a fruit cage.
Hmmmm ........ any sign of voles?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Not that I've seen.
I lost a whole crop of strawbs to the North American tree rat a few years ago, which seemd to do exactly what Welshonion describes.
You wouldn't see the voles. They live underground and come up at night to forage and will also eat roots. They're a real pest if you have them.
I'm glad we don't have tree rats in Scotland Steve 309! I don't think there are voles in the garden as I am sure I would have seen signs of them and the neighbours would have commented. There is a field mouse as I have seen that but I don't think it would get through the net as it is very small netting, the bees manage to get through okay for the pollen.
I have noticed today that I have some nice red strawbs so I am just going to go out and pick them before the rain which I forecast for today comes.