Sweet swell of success

Saturday 19 May 2012

Gardening: strawberries.

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Dave Allan

However you grow strawberries – in pots, hanging baskets or open ground – the bowls of luscious fruit are a wonderful reward. I agree with James VI's physician, William Butler, who said: "Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did." Butler was describing the smaller, arguably more fragrant European fruit that we now call wild or Alpine strawberries. He may also have been thinking about the sweet, green strawberries that were popular in his day or the delicately flavoured white ones. I grow some of the red because of their wonderfully concentrated taste.

Although gardeners have a long cropping season, between May and October, most are content with growing strawberries during the early summer. A good harvest depends on four things: having plants no more than three years old; ample moisture; feeding; and a good, strong sun.Strawberries are susceptible to pests and diseases. While netting protects against birds and there are ways to kill slugs, there is no defence against viruses. After a few years, these cause stunted growth, tiny hard fruit or discoloured and misshapen leaves. Prevention comprises digging up the strawberries after three years and putting certified plants or your own runners from healthy plants in fresh ground, rotating the strawbs like any other crop.Given how many large, juicy strawberries you want, it's hardly surprising they need a regular supply of water while the fruit is ripening. The challenge is to get the water to the roots, not the fruit. Wherever you grow the plants, don't use a watering can or a sprinkler, since wet fruits are more likely to suffer from fungal attack. It's much safer to put a leaky hose on or below the surface around plants or use a drip feeder to get the moisture directly to the roots.This is especially important when you use containers: the compost needs to be kept constantly moist but not soggy. It is much harder to rehydrate compost after it's dried out. When using a growbag, be sure to keep the entire bag moist. Water can often reach part of the bag but not the corners, so make a small hole near the edge and water there too.Strawberry towers are attractive, take up little space and accommodate between six and 10 plants – enough for a good crop. Watering is more problematic: the warm sides of the pot dry out the compost and it's hard, when watering from the top, to give lower plants enough moisture. One solution is to use a watering spike long enough to reach these strawberries. Also use the spikes to give plants their weekly liquid feed, ensuring each strawberry receives the required nutrients.A potash-rich tomato feed, such as comfrey, is ideal for encouraging fruiting. Strawberries growing in a small amount of commercial growing media need a top-up of nutrients, especially if you're going to keep them in a tub for more than one year. When grown in open ground, strawberries should get enough moisture from the soil unless there's a heatwave, and shouldn't require extra feed. You could make the soil too rich, thereby encouraging leafy growth at the expense of the fruit.Besides looking good, strawberry towers yield clean fruits because they hang over the sides and don't touch the soil or compost. And it's a challenge for slugs and birds to snaffle the goodies before you can. When growing in open ground, traditional straw or strawberry mats conserve moisture and keep the fruit clean. I use straw – when the flowers begin to set fruit, I lay it under the developing fruitlets, spreading them out to make sure there's plenty space for the fruit to swell and ripen.You can do your best to achieve a good harvest by growing virus-free plants in moist, fertile soil, but success depends on the sun. When it's sunny, the fruits will ripen, and smell and taste superb, but many will rot and be fairly tasteless during a grey, damp summer. Let's hope for the best.

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