Strawberries coming along

[burnie]

I forget the type, but this is their 3rd year, so hoping for a good crop this season

[damian1225]

Looking good!! I would imagine you wont have much of a shortage of strawberries this summer

[JusPotterinTim]

Very nice, liking the cage!

[burnie]

Very nice, liking the cage!

It's a bit too square, difficult to reach the middle plants, I'm gonna be found face down in the bed with my feet sticking up in the air one of these days. I made it to fit the place rather than practical, I move the plot every 5 years, so the next one will be long and narrow, I already have the spot in mind. I will start potting up runners(Cambridge favourite, just come back to me) this year, bring the plants on for a year, then 2018 will see it dug up for a wildlife pond.

[JusPotterinTim]

Haha what a vision, I hope you don't end up face down in the bed burnie.

I 'think' the Cambridge Favourites I grew were the nicest out of three types I grew last year (the other two were Albion and Honoeye). A nice tang to them but sweet also, but need picking quickly as they start to go soft and rot quickly. I say I think, because my blowaway greenhouse with all my strawbs did exactly what is says on the tin, and blew away, so all the big pots the plants were in broke and the plants were scattered everywhere and I had too rescue them, and lost track of which plants were which variety.

They're getting left in the bed when I (hopefully) move in a few weeks. Now I'm focussing on day neutral types - Mariguette (supposed to be like the French gariguette but repeat cropping - last year they tasted okay but not a strong taste, prolific and big berries though). I've got some mara des bois I got this year after reading all the hype, the first couple of berries I forced in the greenhouse weren't mindblowing, but I'll wait and see what the outdoor plants pump out when alowed to develop more naturally. Just arrived today were some 'Just Add Cream' from Thompson & Morgan, a new day neutral variety that is supposed to taste as good as the Maras at their best but the taste is more consistent, and they have pink flowers for a bit of novelty. I hope they're better than the T&M customer service.

It's fun chasing the elusive perfect strawberry!

[sparrow100]

Eaten my first ones today. *smugface*

[flynch]

Looks great. I've got 500 new strawberry plants in this spring. They are small so not going to crop them this year but looking forward to next years bounty.

[burnie]

First strawberry of the season



Rather yummy, not a huge amount of fruit, but this is their first year.

[MarkPelican]

Eaten my first ones today. *smugface*

I've grown some in pots in my polytunnel and been eating the odd one or two for the last fortnight. Alpine strawberries as well. I'm certainly going to do it again next year. In pots hung from the polytunnel supports, they don't take up any floorspace so I can carry on doing everything else.

Only problem seems to be vine-weevil.

[burnie]

I've grown some Alpine ones from seed this year, do treat them like alpines or the same as other strawberries? By this I mean are they kept well drained and poorly fed like an alpine flower or not?

[MarkPelican]

I've grown some Alpine ones from seed this year, do treat them like alpines or the same as other strawberries? By this I mean are they kept well drained and poorly fed like an alpine flower or not?

I've grown mine in pots with a mixture of MPC and garden compost and dotted around at the edges of the flower beds. I haven't deliberately treated them well or badly. They're originally from seed but they're 3 or 4 years old now.

[burnie]

Thanks Mark, they're just out of modules and into 3 inch pots, I'll put them all out side in dappled shade and move a few into more full sun and see what they prefer. I may put some in the ground as my soil is sandy and very well drained.