Wonky Strawberries

Are you finding some small, misshapen or seedy looking strawberries on your plants? It’s probably due to poor pollination and/or cold weather and frost damage.

Nobody expects to have the perfect harvest of beautiful looking strawberries. If you’ve grown them before, you’ll know that some are a little stunted, or misshapen, some are sweeter than others, some have loads of seeds, and so on. We’re looking at those that are very small, slightly darker in colour and seed heavy, like the ones pictured here.

These are most likely to have suffered from either poor pollination and/or cold weather and frost damage. Actually, the two are very connected as the colder weather and frost mean that bees and other pollinators are not very active. Obviously, by the time you see symptoms it is too late to do anything about it, but hopefully other strawberries on the same plants will have been well pollinated and looking juicy. In future seasons, if you are concerned, you can do your best to improve pollination by hand pollinating. Alternatively you can do what we do, and just pick off the affected berries and throw them out for the birds to enjoy!