wilted strawberry

[Salina]

one of my strawberry plants seems to have wilted and died. I got a pot of 10 plants and this was the smallest, I pulled it out the pot and the roots were the same as when I put it in whereas all the others roots had grown and they are currently blossoming. maybe it was the runt of the litter so to speak lol. any ideas?

[Percy T]

hi salina,

cant really help but your not on your own have had a simular problem, I got thirty odd plants and a big planter for strawberries but about six of the plants havnt taken and have died, dont know what I did wrong. overwatered/underwatered put it in the wrong place etc. new to all this grow your own lark.

[wellie]

I had two plants die on me in the same way earlier this year. There was no sign of any soil pest, and all the other plants in the planter are having a great time. So I'd love to know too.

Any takers?

[eskymo]

it's one of those strange things that happen I think. I had a problem with a lot of strawberry plants dying last year, but discovered vine weevil in some of the posts and think that was the problem. But this year, again, some of my plants have just decided to die off whereas the other plants in the same pots are totally fine and doing really well - we've already had out first massive strawberry and it was delicious - I checked the roots and found no pests at all. No idea what's happening to them. Maybe strawberries suffer from depression and just wither away sometimes.

[Protea]

Strawberries, especially newly planted ones can suffer badly with overwatering - its the biggest killer!

Were the roots black or light brown? black suggests rot from too much water, light brown sugests not enough water.

Whe i plant cold stored runners i only water them lightly in dry spells as advised by Ken Muir - he says that overwatering is the biggest cause of his customers killing the plants!

[noidea]

I considered taking some of mines out of their grow bags after realising about the waterlogging thing but suddenly they started flowering! It's hard to tell when they are in grobags and I won't be doing that again.

I have a planter too with straws and out of the 12 plants 2 have just died off for no reason....

C

[MrsC]

its the one thing i have never had problems with, they are all over my garden, have pulled them out and put some in planters and given the rest away! i had too many. the overwatering though seems to make sense, i just leave mine too it and never really bother to water, so perhaps this is the problem, good luck