Taste of summer
have got far more from these strawberry plants than me!
Horticultural fleece would also be suitable. I’ll continue with regular watering and another feed in a fortnight.
If you haven’t got a crop growing now, you could buy cold-store runners which are ready to be planted and should bear fruit within 60 days. Or get planning for an autumn planting – buy runners at the end of the summer.
Plant in a sunny, well-nourished soil around 18 inches apart. A sunny sheltered position is best.
As with other food plants, practise crop rotation and avoid planting where strawberries, potatoes, tomatoes and chrysanthemums have been growing.
Strawberries can be prone to root diseases, such as verticillium wilt which can build up in the soil.
In spring, give your plants a general fertiliser and then in early summer a high potash feed while they are forming berries.
After harvest, cut away any dead leaves and clear straw or matting away.
You will get around three to five years from a strawberry plant, but after that you will need to replace it.
You can also propagate them quite easily from the mother plant which sends out runners – peg these down and they will form new baby plants.
To avoid a glut of too much fruit for just a couple of weeks, try planting early, mid-season and late-season varieties.
‘Mae’ is one of the earliest croppers,