Expert tips on growing the most strawberries you can this summer
Warm days, cool nights and record-breaking sunshine levels have combined to create perfect growing conditions, according to British Berry Growers.
The Wimbledon Tennis Championships traditionally mark peak strawberry season, with around 200,000 portions of strawberries and cream consumed during the tournament.
However, there's nothing quite like the taste of home-grown strawberries picked fresh, and they aren't difficult to grow for yourself.
The weather makes a difference
'The weather has been very kind to all growers,' says Jim Floor, managing director of berry growers Hall Hunter. 'We had a very cold February and March, then from April onwards it's been sunny – and strawberries love sunshine.
'The nights have been quite cool and the perfect environment for strawberries is 20 degree days and 10 degree nights.'
Plenty of bees help
If you have a garden with plenty of plants which attract pollinators, such as open-flowered geum, iberis, cranesbill geraniums, lavender and heathers, you're likely to get better crops because the bees will pollinate the strawberry flowers.
For the biggest harvests…
You'll need plenty of space for a strawberry patch if you want a huge crop, and will need to plant numerous plants. Alternatively, you can grow strawberries in pots but because of the limited number of plants you can accommodate, your yield may be limited.
Many types produce new runners after flowering, which create new plantlets on their own.
You can also plant different varieties of strawberries to extend the season – summer-fruiting types, perpetual strawberries which produce a smaller quantity of fruit from summer until autumn, and Alpine, or wild, strawberries, which bear small crops of tiny berries spasmodically during summer.
Plug plants are a good bet and are available in garden centres and nurseries from late spring onwards, or alternatively you can buy bare-root plants, known as runners, which look like root clumps, in late summer or early autumn, and again in spring.
Plant in full sun or in polytunnels where they will be warm and won't become damp, or if outside a raised bed or grow bag is a good option, Floor suggests.
'I grow them in a hanging basket (at home) because they tend to do much better if they're not (at ground level) in the soil, where there are lots of pests and diseases.'
During the growing season, make sure they are fed and watered regularly. 'I would recommend a balanced multi-purpose liquid feed.
'If you want sweeter strawberries you might want to put more potassium in, but you need to be careful because any overfeeding of potassium, calcium or nitrogen could give you a problem.
' Calcium can burn the leaves, potassium could potentially kill the plants and (overfeeding with) nitrogen, you will get 100% leaves and no fruit.
Possible problems
Slugs are a threat, he warns. 'Last year because of the mild winter and the wet year the problem was slugs, particularly if you were growing strawberries in the ground.
'This year it's been about keeping everything irrigated. As long as the plants have plenty of water, they will do well.'
Birds may also feast on the fruits, so it would be wise to cover your strawberries with netting if you need to keep them at bay.
As the fruits emerge, place straw underneath them so the fruits don't brush against the ground and rot.
When are they ready to pick?
When they are evenly red, he says. 'They don't necessarily come off the stem quite easily. If the fruit comes off easily it may be over-ripe.'
After fruiting
'De-leaf the plants a little bit, getting rid of the debris and dead leaves, and there's no reason why they couldn't be kept for another year,' he suggests.
Good varieties
Strawberries which have received the RHS Award of Garden Merit include 'Hapil', which produces large red fruits and is lauded for its vigorous growth and is well-suited to light or drier soils and to containers; and the late season 'Florence' which has 'exceptional disease resistance' and whose large dark red fruits are produced in mid-July.
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