Strawberries

As each plant will have a maximum productive life of around 4 years I decided from the outset to plant each strawberry in a plastic tub so that it can easily be moved around. It also helps with feeding as the nutrition is applied directly to the plant. The area was covered with weed retardant material and covered with a mulch.

As with many of my crops I will post more details once I perfect each one. I have with the strawberry, I just need to organise more photos! But for now I will share with you my best tip for minimising loss of fruit to the birds and slugs.

I used to cover the beds with netting, but this was time consuming.  I had noticed in previous years the birds only had a go at the fruit when it was fully ripe.

I then discovered that as with the tomato, the fruit ripens to red as a result of a chemical reaction and not the sun. So in 2019 I decided to pick the fruit when I spotted just a small amount of blush. 

The tray on the left shows the fruit as picked, the middle after 24/48 hours and the end after 48/72 hours. The trays were on the kitchen window ledge and kitchen table with no direct sun. 

I think we lost a total of one pound of strawberries throughout the summer. Derrick 1 Birds 0!!