Strawbs and Grey Mould

[jonohanson]

I have a few temp buckets of strawbs (untill their bed is ready) anyhow there are a few diff. varieties and one bucket all the fruit grew fine then just as they ripen they get the mould, now the plants are very close as they are in a temp place.

My question is when I replant them all in the winter do I cut all the foliage off above ground?? or will that kill the plant?? As I want to try and eliminate it for next years crop what can I do??

Many Thanks

[Paulottie]

I've seen a strawberry patch torched with the straw and all to kill everything and the strawbs resprout just fine. I cut mine back and let my chickens loose on mine last winter and they pretty much cleared everything for me and they resprouted fine too. Infact it is quite good policy.... Mind you these are established beds. On the other hand Botrytis spores are everywhere anyway and some strawbs are quite susceptible when damp so there is no guarantees.

[jonohanson]

Thanks for the reply, I might just bin them, they were very heavy croppers intheir first year which is a shame, they were from lidl they are quite a light green in colour and quite large. The others are from B&Q and are smaller, greener more bushier plants but are fine, no mould on the fruits....

[PurpleBecca]

If you have a choice of variety and can see deffinate advantages to one over another - sounds like a good idea

So you were the lucky devil who got to Lidl early enough to get the strawberry plants then huh? lol!

[gojiberry]

The grey mould is more to do with growing condition than anything else. You need to make sure there is a good flow of air around your plants which you may not have had with a temporary position. Also make sure that once the plants form fruits that you try to lift the fruit off of the soil. Landscape fabric is excellent for that. I do not clean my plant up till spring when I remove all old leaves, weed and anything else. The reason for this is that severe frost can kill strawberries if it gets into the crown.


Ian

[jonohanson]

Were in the process of building a new bed for them, once this is completed it will be filled with topsoil/compost and then I think i'm going to put some sort of weed membrane down and plant the plants through that with plenty of space between and to either side so there is space for them to put runners out.

As you said the growing conditiions aren't great at the moment there really crammed in with not alot of space so in away i'm not suprised they have got mould. Hopefully next year will be a different story.

As for Lidl I was one of the lucky ones they had quite a few trays left when I went not all of them were good if I remember they wer 6 for £2.99 bit more expensive than B&Q's 15 for £5.99 but I couldn't resist them, and as some of them were half dead(we all know what Lidl are like for watering there plants) I mixed and matched to get the best ones

Thanks for all the replys.