Growing Strawberries- grrr!

chris25 · Post by **chris25** » 06 Jun 2008, 12:35

Last year we brought a load of strawberry plants.

Put them in a good few inches apart.

They then grow and grow and the runners spread and spread.

It got to the point where everyday you'd have to prune them.

Anyway I've stripped them out and they are fruiting just like last year-........ crap.

Slugs which cant even be arsed to eat the whole strawberry, tried everything- wood ash, straw, beer traps etc. Here's a pic-

The plants yield loads of heavy fruits but 1) they can be dark red on one side and bright green on the other 2) they are so heavy they touch the ground and rot (even with straw) 3) they are impossible to pick because they are heavy and just hide under the plant

I have two varieties- Elsanta (common strawberry) and Camridge Vigour. Elsanta tastes of polysterne but as easy to pick and Cambridge Vigour tastes delightful but the slugs always get them first and they fall apart when you pick them.
I am so annoyed I am slowy ripping them out and replacing them with the tiny wild strawberry. So much for hybrid improvements eh?

Check out the difference in size!

What I also find funny is how strawberries are meant to be the easiest things to grow yet my other fruits (Rhubarb and Rasberries) have been fantastic yielding and so terribly easily to grow.

Anyone know any strawberry varities that-

1) Taste good
2) Bear fruits that dont touch the ground (but are larger than wild strawberries)
3) Yield a lot
4) Doesnt grow at the speed of sound

Any tips?

Totally_Baffled · Post by **Totally_Baffled** » 06 Jun 2008, 13:37

Any tips?

Apologies - no tips , I am having the same issues!! GRRRRR

Joules · Post by **Joules** » 06 Jun 2008, 15:26

I'm no expert (but I'll ask someone who is), but maybe there's too much leaf cover? You've got big healthy plants casting their own shade over the fruit. Could that be it?

ndon · Post by **ndon** » 06 Jun 2008, 18:28

i accidently crossed cambridge vigor with another... can't remember what now, the wife might...

Anyroad, when we moved I took 2 dozen of the strongest runners, and have been growing these and propogating their runners for 3 years now, they are great, poke up with all sorts of weather, sure some get slugged, and some rot, but in the main it's all good.

not much help, sorry!

mobbsey · Post by **mobbsey** » 06 Jun 2008, 21:05

I just bought about 5 litres of Marstons (in 12 cans) from Morrisons -- for ?8.90-odd!! -- and I'm lacing every corner with little pots of beer (covered to stop the rain waterin them down). Expect to significantly reduce the population over the next week or two. I used to get slops for free from the local pub, but it shut recently, probably because people are getting cheap booze from Morrisons just down the road.

Our big problem is that the neighbours on two sides have decking, or as I call it, The Slug and Snail Winter Retreat. I've tried all sorts of anti-slug measures, and, short of hooking them on the end of a long stick and then launching them over three or four garden walls, beer still works the best after a spring wet spell.

Totally_Baffled · Post by **Totally_Baffled** » 06 Jun 2008, 21:11

OMG - the birds have eaten my Cauliflowers again!

I covered them with wire cloches, they must of found a gap.

Man this is frustrating !

Post by **kenneal - lagger** » 06 Jun 2008, 21:13

A torch and penknife soon sort out slugs: twice as many dead ones. ':)'

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 06 Jun 2008, 22:23

Jamie Oliver put his strawbs in hanging baskets. Perhaps that was why.

Erik · Post by **Erik** » 06 Jun 2008, 22:27

Totally_Baffled wrote:OMG - the birds have eaten my Cauliflowers again!

I covered them with wire cloches, they must of found a gap.

Man this is frustrating !

Thanks for that tip. I didn't even know that birds would be interested in cauliflowers, so I'd better get some wire mesh sorted out for mine. Are birds particularly partial to broccoli too?

careful_eugene · Post by **careful_eugene** » 07 Jun 2008, 08:35

mobbsey wrote:I just bought about 5 litres of Marstons (in 12 cans) from Morrisons -- for ?8.90-odd!! -- and I'm lacing every corner with little pots of beer (covered to stop the rain waterin them down). Expect to significantly reduce the population over the next week or two. I used to get slops for free from the local pub, but it shut recently, probably because people are getting cheap booze from Morrisons just down the road.

Our big problem is that the neighbours on two sides have decking, or as I call it, The Slug and Snail Winter Retreat. I've tried all sorts of anti-slug measures, and, short of hooking them on the end of a long stick and then launching them over three or four garden walls, beer still works the best after a spring wet spell.

I can't believe you use quality beer for trapping slugs, wouldn't cheap value beer work just as well?

Post by **mikepepler** » 07 Jun 2008, 08:45

Pair of secateurs and and a torch, just after dusk, did the trick in our our place. First night I went out in the garden I killed 70 slugs in 15mins, the next night it was about 50, about 40 after that, and so on...

Tracy P · Post by **Tracy P** » 07 Jun 2008, 09:55

....it was somewhat frightening to look out the window and see this torch bobbing around in the garden and knowing there was a masacre going on!
In the morning the ground was covered in slimy bodies
hmm
lovely

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 07 Jun 2008, 21:47

Little b***ers were chomping my sunflowers! I want out there and "did a Mike" (in the front garden

) Now the whole street think I'm barking. d.i.l.l.i.g.a.f.f

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 07 Jun 2008, 21:58

Ate our first strawberry today - and no slugs in sight

We're going to have loads and loads of raspberries this year. Maybe the rain last summer did them good.

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 07 Jun 2008, 22:25

I wonder, if your strawbs only get ripe on one side, wold mulching with tin foil work (I am not taking the p!ss)?