Strawberry plants all suddenly wilting

[Lpeek]

Hi All!

I've never grown strawberries so I've got no idea whats going on here. underwatering, overwatering, pests etc.

I've got a small window box of a few strawberry plants, all seemed to be growing well but today they've all wilted dramatically. This happened in the space of about 12 hours. Last night they were fine, woke up this morning and they're all looking awful.

Any ideas? I've been watering every day in the morning over the last week with the hot weather, before that I've just been keeping the soil moist, watering every day or every few days whenever needed.

Thanks!

[Shadylane]

The only thing that comes to minds is vine weevil. Give the plants a gentle tug to see if the roots are still intact, as the grubs will feed on the roots.

[WendyC]

That's exactly what I thought. The grubs are little C shaped grubs with a brown head. The organic solution would be to repot washing the roots off carefully or the chemical one is Provado, but I'm not sure it is suitable for edible crops. I'll go and read the label.

[FB.]

Just looks like lack of water to me. Vine weevil grubs destroy the roots and the plants not only wilt but usually have discoloured/red-tinged and small leaves.

It's notoriously difficult to get the right amount of water to potted plants. Too little water and they dry out (and compost seems to dry very easily yet is very difficult to rehydrate; water just runs straight through dry compost). Too much water and they can get root rots.

[Tadpole123]

Yesterday was very hot and my strawberries in full sun needed watering morning and evening. When you water them are you just giving them a 3 second pour from a jug each? my neighbour did this and they looked worse than yours a week ago so I gave them a good soaking till the soil was wet through and they're ok now.

Ease off the watering a few days before you want to pick the strawberries, they taste sweeter.