Strawberries

[Sakeena]

Grow your own strawberries

Strawberries take up hardly any room, produce attractive flowers and delicious fruit, and are easy to maintain. Follow our advice on growing your own. The ideal soil is well-drained and rich in humus. They prefer to be planted in full sun, out of the wind. Strawberry plants can be planted outdoors from late June until September.

What to do

* Prepare the soil by digging over, removing any perennial weeds and adding manure.
* Place the strawberry plants every 35cm (13 in) in rows that are 75cm (30 in) apart.
* Plant with the crown at soil level and water well.
* To prevent slugs, put down pellets or place grit or broken egg shells under each plant.
* Place a net over the plants to prevent birds and squirrels from eating the fruit.
* Pick any ripe strawberries so they don't rot on the plant. Check the plants every other day during the ripening period.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/growfruitandveg_strawberries1.shtml

How to grow in a basket

Growing strawberries in a hanging basket ensures they're kept out of the way of slugs. Plant five to six plants in a basket in spring, and water every day during the growing season. From flowering until harvest, feed the plants every ten days with a product that's high in potassium, such as a tomato feed. The same strawberry plants should continue to produce fruit the following year, but the crops will be better if the plants are renewed.

Five to try

* 'Elvira' - a heavy cropper producing large, soft fruits from June to early July.
* 'Hapil' - high-yielding variety with large, bright red fruits from early to late July.
* 'Florence' - grows well in all soils and produces large, dark fruit in late summer.
* 'Vivarosa' - one of the few varieties to produce pink (instead of white) flowers.
* Fragaria vesca - provides good ground cover in cottage gardens.

[Sakeena]

not grown strawberries myself so this year will be my first inshallah, i know it's a bit early to be thinking about them but has anyone successfully grown strawberries from a plant pot? and which variation would you recommend for a first timer?

[Riz]

well its a first for me as well sakeena...

ive seen the small strawberry plants sold in B&Q though, i will look closer next time, so they go in the ground in june, right in the middle of summer...

[Sakeena]

i've found other links that suggest planting in march (?)

[Riz]

i've found other links that suggest planting in march (?)

yeah..

i can believe that, maybe its an early strain of strawberry...

[~Obsidian~]

Did anybody plant strawberries this year then? How did they do?

[Sakeena]

hi obidian, na never got around to it. Still got the starters kit so will get a head start next year, lol.

[~Obsidian~]

Ha you avoided a somewhat pathetic summer anyway :butterfly-049: hope it gets better next year inshAllah!

[MustafaMc]

We planted strawberries this spring, but they did not make much at all. They got really dry a couple of times and almost died. Insha'Allah, next year I will have a drip irrigation system installed.

[Sakeena]

Hi MustafaMC, did you plant in the ground or in hanging baskets? i hear strawberrys do better in baskets that way they don't get eatten but snails.

Obsidian: yeah i don't think we had a summer this year at all. None of my plants did well :/

[rainbox]

I've got alpine strawberry seedlings at the moment, they're just getting their second sets of leaves but are soooo tiny I don't know how to re-pot them without damaging them. They're only about 3 millimetres tall, is it ok to keep them close together for now or will their roots get all tangled? And how do I re-pot something that small??

[Riz]

are you growing them individually or are they in one container !?

[Riz]

you can use a spoon and scoop each one out including the dirt around it, so you don't disturb the tiny root ball

[edibles]

my strawberries are fruiting(type that fruits every time their is a warm day)
quality is poor though, shadowed a lot by walls/shed

[rainbox]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3478/3312871914_273c128d87.jpg

The strawberries are the little ones on the right.
As you can see they're pretty close together and tiny. Is it better to just wait until they're bigger? Because it's not going to be possible to scoop one of them out with a spoon without squashing all the other ones around it.

[~Obsidian~]

Unless you're a surgeon, I think you are definitely going to have problems repotting those!! :p I'd say wait until they've reached the size of the other seedlings (the ones on the left) then attempt to repot them.

[Foz]

how do you stop the birds eating them? my parents gave up in the end as the birds always got them!!

[edibles]

my strawberries growing big leaves, their are some flowers in there to, somewhere(fruit all year round)

[~Obsidian~]

What are they called edibles?

[edibles]

What are they called edibles?

dont know, but are extremely productive, a bit too productive, need regular thinning
as of today

[~Obsidian~]

I was going to buy some yesterday, didn't though. Hope you get some strawberries soon!

[Riz]

how do you stop the birds eating them? my parents gave up in the end as the birds always got them!!


strawberry netting from B&Q will do the job : :GreenThumbs:

[Riz]

dont know, but are extremely productive, a bit too productive, need regular thinning
as of today

pretty flowers mashallah !!

nice pic.

[ze leetle elper]

Are strawberries grown from seeds or something? I just stuck 2 strawberries in a pot a week ago...waiting to see if anything happens lol :p

[rainbox]

I bought 3 strawberry plants a couple of days ago:)

[~Obsidian~]

Are strawberries grown from seeds or something? I just stuck 2 strawberries in a pot a week ago...waiting to see if anything happens lol :p
Did anything happen? :p I don't think they'd grow like that for some reason!
I bought 3 strawberry plants a couple of days ago:)

Yaay :D how big are they?

[rainbox]

Sort of medium-sized :P

I'll get some pics tomorrow :)

[rainbox]

My strawberries:D

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2380/3533507412_d2132f5b8f.jpg?v=0

[Nife180]

Lovely! how many months old do they have to be to flower?

[rainbox]

I have no idea. I think they'll flower this summer though, maybe even get some strawberries? :)

There were some at the garden centre of the same type but bigger and with some flowers, but I thought replanting them when they have flowers is generally not a good idea so I bought the smaller ones instead. Hopefully they'll catch up soon though! :D

[Nife180]

I may consider growing indoors as it's always in the range of 18-20 degrees. And the humidity is about 50%.

How long do Alpine Strawberries take to germinate from seed without the Freezer treatment? because someone got a faster germination without freezing, but I thought freezing was supposed to break the dormancy and speed things up.

[Riz]

maybe these youtube vids will help..

grow strawberries indoors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KncCXqhKKg


how to grow strawberries

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6vex75byHg

[ze leetle elper]

How much space do they need? Do they spread out a lot or can I plant them close together...I bought 2 strawberry plants from Homebase 99p each :p

[ze leetle elper]

...

[edibles]

you can plant them close but they will spread faster than you can blink

[edibles]

strawberries getting big but still green

[aamirc]

just watch out for bugs and slugs, when i grew these they got eaten by them...

[edibles]

lol i've never been a fan of strawberries so as long as something eats them

[~Obsidian~]

strawberries getting big but still green
Lovely, edibles
lol i've never been a fan of strawberries so as long as something eats them

:eek:

[rainbox]

I've got some flowers on mine now :)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3317/3615939635_799dd594db.jpg?v=0

[~Obsidian~]

Thats an awesome pic, chick!

I bought two plants today - Cambridge Favourite.

[ze leetle elper]

Got 2 tiny strawberries on my plants now hehe...tiny and green! But yay anyway! :D

[~Obsidian~]

Got about 3 flowers on the plants! One of the flowers had all of it's petals knocked off by the rain though :p and where one stem is growing horizontally along the ground there seem to be two tiny suckers on it..how cool is that!

[edibles]

I was going to upload a pic of three days of harvesting but i came home and they had been eaten:p

[ze leetle elper]

Here are my only 2 so far! :p

[~Obsidian~]

One of the petal-less flowers and (2) behind it....

[Dylweed]

I have some strawberries that have a family reunion of aphids on them. What gets rid of these critters for good. Something within an average house would be better. Tight with cash right now so insecticides are out of the question. Thanks alot. PS this is an amazing forum. Peace.

[Riz]

hi dyl

This is your first post hehee !! welcome to muslimgrower..

I was fascinated this time last year and wanted to grow strawberries indoors in a spare room i have upstairs, i have all the grow lights and did lots of reading on them.. but then we in uk had huge increases on our utility bills and i didnt bother with it...

[Dylweed]

Aphids had there way with them:


They started off real nice at first beautiful white flowers and all. Then the strawberries started to come(they looked great too). Then the aphids appeared right after. BLAMO. Disfunctional strawberry patches. All of your strawberry plants look really healthy btw.

http://i873.photobucket.com/albums/ab292/buddyburns/IMGA2903.jpg

http://i873.photobucket.com/albums/ab292/buddyburns/IMGA2904.jpg

http://i873.photobucket.com/albums/ab292/buddyburns/IMGA2905.jpg

[edibles]

buy some ladybirds/bugs

[Dylweed]

I tried the veg oil/dish soap/warm water from a spray bottle. It worked pretty well. Most of the aphids on my strawberry plants were killed. The plants look so much happier. I cut off the growth that was affected by the critters. Then I noticed that the aphids were on my pepper and basil plants. Time to make some more spray. Darn it all.

[Riz]

a jet of water will take them off, and you can always use your hands to scrape them off, that's what i do sometimes...

[pomegranate]

This year was the best year i ever had with these strawberries. I had lots of fruits and they taste wonderful. Have a look!:)

2283

[Riz]

^ hey pommie

they look sooo tasty :)

well done!!

[~Obsidian~]

This year was the best year i ever had with these strawberries. I had lots of fruits and they taste wonderful. Have a look!:)

WOW They look LOVELY pom :D well done! I love strawberries :D still waiting for mine though :cheerleader:

[ze leetle elper]

first year of strawberries for me and YAY I got 2! :p :p

[~Obsidian~]

Looks like you have more developing ze, and so you should have more to come!

They look postively drool-licious! :p

[Dylweed]

I can't believe how great all of your strawberries look. I am so jealous. Well enjoy those strawberries. I'll share a quick strawberry recipie.

-crushed strawberries(as fine as possible not blended though)
-balsamic viniger
-extra virgin olive oil
-water and sugar till it tastes just right.

it makes for the best tasting salad dressing ever! Give it a try you guys. Hope those strawberries keep on coming. Bye

[~Obsidian~]

LOL Dylweed!! Thanks for the recipe :D you can still buy the plants yourself? They'll be fruiting around now so it's a nice cheat :D

[Tania]

I like soo much the strawberries..its a very good idea to have your own plants. I like them with whipped cream..delicious.

[~Obsidian~]

Mine are reddening - I had to pluck one off because a caterpilar had made it it's home but the rest are fine (my cat was sleeping on the table :p)

[Tania]

Aww. She is cute. The keeper of strawberries.

[~Obsidian~]

^:D It's a he btw!

Two strawberries picked and eaten today! I didn't eat either of them but I'm told they were very nice :D My brother said "They don't taste like this anymore" so I'm taking that as positive feedback! :p

[Riz]

^ well make sure you eat the next batch :)

[~Obsidian~]

I did eat one it was gorgeous :D I picked three more (six in total now) and gave one to my other bro (the other two needed to ripen a bit more) and he loved it!

Yummy :D

[edibles]

last of the summer crop.

[Riz]

^ nice pic ed :)

[ENIGMA]

how often do they need to be watered?

what does one need to do to get fruit all year round? If you just pick the fruit off the end whens its matured,will another gorw(eventually) in its place or do you have to do something else like cut some stems/roots etc??

saw some strawberry pots in Homebase and was very tempted to get them.

[~Obsidian~]

Get them! Check when the fruiting season is for them, some fruit early, some late, and I'm not sure if any exist that fruit all year round. And check what kind of fruit you will get from them.

Water them maybe every couple of days? When they fruit they need loads of water to bulk up the strawberries. Basically they grow a flower and the fruit will develop from that, break off the strawberry just above the sepals and it should be fine - they have many flowers at once anyway for more fruit.

Bonus is, once the fruiting season is over they will send out long shoots which, if they make contact with the ground, will establish roots and become new plants! The old plants are winter-hardy too, so you will just increase the amount of plants you have over the years.

[ze leetle elper]

didn't do strawberries this year...was tempted though!

[ENIGMA]

UPDATE!!!!!

My wife bought a starwberry basket over the weekend.

just wanted to know what are the optimum conditions for us to keep the basket in to get best results?

shoud it be in the shade or in direct sunlight? how much and how often should we water the basket?

im so excited....:cheerleader:


:ty:

[Riz]

full sun is ideal... Watering strawberries is also a simple rule process - water them only enough to keep the soil damp. Do not over water. Do not allow them to stand in water. At the same time, remember however, that strawberries are 95% water. If they do not get enough water, they will be small and hard.

here is a link
http://www.howdididoit.com/home-garden/how-to-grow-strawberries-in-containers/

[ENIGMA]

UPDATE!!!!!

My wife bought a starwberry basket over the weekend.

just wanted to know what are the optimum conditions for us to keep the basket in to get best results?

shoud it be in the shade or in direct sunlight? how much and how often should we water the basket?

im so excited....:cheerleader:


:ty:

UPDATE!!!

Mashallah,the strawberries are now taking shape. I check them everyday. my wife thinks im really obsessive. :D

[ummahmed]

^ we had our first ripe strawberry a week ago :cheerleader:

I managed to cut it into 5 pieces so each memeber of our family could have a slice :o....my kids give me a daily update on the pinkness of the strawberries so you're not anymore obsessive than the rest of us :)

we have 4 more "babies" on the way :D

[Foz]

my 3 plants i took from my parents house

[pwr_wrx]

strawberry update :D

[pwr_wrx]

another update :)

[ze leetle elper]

picked the first yummy one today!
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/zeleetleelper/DSC03759.jpg

[pwr_wrx]

how do they taste?