Yield of Strawberry Plants?

[magz.mccarthy]

Hi,

How many strawberries would you expect to get from each little strawberry plant in the first year? Or do they even fruit at all in the first year?

Margaret

[Victoria26]

I never got any runners off of mine in the first year but I did get fruit.

2nd year I got about twenty runners off of it and no fruit.

This year I have potted up all my new strawberry runners and their doing fab. I only want fruit this year so i'll snip any runners off.

[rogesse]

Whatever you do - don't be nice to them.

Last year I over fed mine and they were all leaf and no strawberry!

[magz.mccarthy]

ha ha, i will be a cruel mistress to them rogesse.

victoria, how many plants did you have and did you think they were enough? I have 6 at the moment and am thinking of getting 6 more as there is lots of space left in their bed and i would like a nice big strawberry patch.

[Victoria26]

I had 3 - I bought them from B&Q one year while they were on offer. Not a lot of fruit but in any case it never made it into the house as they were always eaten straightaway!

I have kept 12 of the new runners and still have my original 3 which should be enough for me n hubby I'm sure. (After this year my original 3 will stop being so productive as they'll be over 3 years old)

If you want runners then the plant will put all of its enery into producing these so its unlikely you'll get any fruit. If you just want fruit make sure you snip the runners off as soon as you can. Good luck.

[Victoria26]

BTW I fed mine once a week last year while they had runners. This year i'll do it once a fortnight.

[rana]

Some gardening sages suggest that you should remove flowers in the first year of new plants in order to build up the strength of each plant and to improve the yield in future years.

I have followed this advice and my 30 or so established plants yield 15-20 kilos of fruit; that's quite a lot of strawberries so my friends do well on the strawberry jam front.

With a dozen plants you could de-flower (if you get my meaning) half and let the others fruit.

[esrikandan]

I planted out about 40 across two small beds last year. Some were new plants, others that had been "rescued" from a container. The rescued plants produced very few, fairly sharp fruit, where the newer plants produced a decent amount of tasty fruit. In total both beds gave me about 3 kgs of fruit. I just left them to it and both types of plants produced HUGE amounts of runners. I chopped of most of them after they had finished fruiting, and after cleaning out just one bed removed about another 30-40 runners.

[Farmer_Gyles]

i was given some strawberries from a neighbouring plotholder - she reckons she got 1 pound of strawberries from every 3 plants ........

[Jillyreeves]

I have got 6 plants which I got off "Freecycle" I intend to plant them up in a planter but other than this I dont really know what to do or what to expect. Help please

[Paulottie]

How to grow Strawberries.

I don't know if this should be on 'feeling fruity' but here is how its done. Like so much in Gardening it is simple once your in the rhythm.

It is easy to grow average fruit but for really good size fruit and high yield.
You must choose certified virus free stock. Normally delivered March/April. Bring them on in 3" pots in a coldframe then plant in your well prepared, free draining, fresh bed.

REMOVE any flowers and runners this year: By letting the plants build up strength they will reward you with 3 years of really good cropping. After which they tend to tail off and succumb to disease...burn them. In their last season it is good to force them, from Feb, with cloches for an early crop. It is just feasible to produce runners that are well established and planted out in the previous autumn and then it is possible to take a crop the next year....let a spring planted one fruit and you will weaken it forever.

Harsh I know! but grow a few spares in pots for some straws this year. When grown in pots you may as well compost them annually - they will never do well again. It is worth doing a few each year in the greenhouse/frame anyway (for early fruit.)

In 2nd or 3rd years choose the healthiest most productive plants and pin down an early runner or two into the pot or bed cut any others off. Find a new site and begin another bed...and so on. It is worth growing more than one variety to spread the season. I haven't found the 'perpetual' ones much good though...just the odd average fruit in autumn. Apart from that use a high potash feed in Spring and a general fertilizer in Summer.

You should normally expect about 250g (8oz) of well flavoured fruit from a plant. Some varieties if over fed and watered are slightly more productive but maybe at the expense of flavour.

There are a few methods of cultivation:

Rows and straw are great but the weeding (especially buttercup) and runners are a pain. I have seen the rows burnt like stubble to kill the disease and pests...takes a brave heart and understanding neighbours...mind that shed...but they just sprout again.

I grow through Mypex woven membrane....not to everyone's taste but it keeps me organised. Some claim that it can encourage botrytis; but a wet spring is just that; It is important to remove any mouldy fruit.

The Rolls Royce option is probably to build a 'crib'... crossed sticks with planks laid in. (all about 4ft high) The advantages, apart from lack of back ache, involve ease of slug barriers and keeping above the irritating late frosts that can blacken the flowers. Also good if you have limited bed space...but an expensive option.

Netting up is important at fruiting time and those blackbirds are quite good at spotting the weak point in your defenses. You need a good snag free system. Keep you nets labelled and in good order. Remove them and any straw and foliage as soon as possible after fruiting to let the birds at the weevils etc....and prevent disease. My chickens love to help me with this job!

I use the straw to plant under a 2nd crop of July sown runner beans.

Good luck with it.

[Eyren]

Thanks for the comprehensive advice, Paul - though I'm not sure I have the self-discipline to remove all the flowers

I think I will try to do it on most of my dozen plants and leave a couple to fruit just to find out what they are like - I've not grown strawbs successfully before (previously tried in containers with v limited success), so I'm getting impatient!

[Paulottie]

Good idea, nobody could blame you harvesting a couple of plants!!! it will be interesting to compare these to the others in subsequent years.

[rogesse]

Wow - not sure I have the patience but seeing as I've never had a truely good strawberry season perhaps I should follow your advice - in the words of Johnny Logan 'what's another year' (how sad am I)