Small straw berries at 1st now getting larger is this normal?

[simon12]

I planted 2 strawberry plants in roughly early May I bought from a local garden centre. A few weeks ago the 1st fruit ripened but was tiny around the size or peas, in the last few days some more have and they are still small but bigger and 2-3 times longer than the are wide and taste more raspberry ish (the very small ones tasted like strawberries) there are now unripe fruits on the plants getting to more of a normal size. Is this normal?

I had no idea what I was doing when I planted them and they are far to close together, they grew really quickly and are now overlapping each other, they also got covered in small insect eggs which a few times I had to blast off with a hose. My other question is when is a good time to move them further apart. Any help and comments welcome, sorry I have no idea on the variety as I lost the label.

[Nicos]

How close are they?

I think I've given up trying to find out the optimal planting distance!

I've read anything from 1-3 ft apart...and other peeps I know plant them 6" apart and they still do fine!
The idea of planting further apart allows for a better airflow between plants so you are less likely to have problems with mold.

Most of my plants are about 9" apart and do fine.


Moving them?
In the Autumn is best when the leaves are turning red and dying back.

To be honest- you wouldn't expect a crop at all the first year. Most peeps nip the flowers off to allow the plants to push their energy into the root system.

Mind you- if you only have 2 plants- and it's the first time you've grown them..then I don't blame you leaving them to fruit!

Oh- and some varieties do have long fruit rather than round ones!

[simon12]

Thank you for the fast reply if this has worked here are some pictures, the 1st of both plants and the second showing the small ripening fruits on it at the moment. I read to remove the flowers for the 1st year but I thought rightly or wrongly from the size of the plants (around a 3rd of what they are now) that they are already a year old. I need to move then anyway as you can see a logan berry is now starting to grow over them.

[rustylady]

They look like alpine strawberries Simon.

[simon12]

After doing a google image search I have to agree they look like alpine, the berries are not sticking up quite so vertically but the plants could be a picture of mine. I tried a few more today they are getting a bit bigger and these are much nicer than the previous but the sweetness varies hugely between the berries.
Thanks both of you for the help.