Just as we come into the beginning of the strawberry season, here are some top tips for looking after them:
- Give them a liquid feed – you can use a general liquid feed, or a tomato feed, or make your own by soaking nettles in a bucket of water for a few hours. The extra nutrient boost will help them as they come into the fruiting season.
- As fruits start to form you can pop some straw down under them to prevent the fruits from sitting on the soil. This is done to stop them from rotting, but you should be aware that the straw can provide a lovely home for slugs, so if it gets wet and your garden is full of slugs you may wish to put down some slug traps (using cheap lager) or you could try using “strulch” instead (available online – organic and effective)
- Protect ripening fruits with a net – squirrels, mice, and birds all love to nibble on strawberries! You can simply lay a sheet of fleece or enviromesh over the top to keep them protected.
Once the strawberries finish fruiting, they will start to put out runners to reproduce. At this stage you can pot on the runners to increase the number of plants you have, or you can simply cut them off. See the related blog post below for more details on this.
