Small strawberries

[JohnN]

I planted six strawberry plants in largish pots earlier in the year, and had the first fruits mid- June. But only a few of them are "strawberry sized", most are about the size of a large grape. They've ripened OK and taste fine. The soil they went in was well-manured, but I've only watered since as they looked healthy. Is the small size due to lack of feed, lack of water - or what? The plants are Red Gauntlet and Cambridge Vigour.
Thanks, John N.

[pongeroon]

I don't know the answer, but I have had similar results. I put it down to moving the plants too late in the spring, but maybe there is another reason.

[glallotments]

Did they get enough water when the fruit was swelling? Also I've found that newly planted strawberries rarely produce a decent crop in their first year. Another factor is were the pots outside where pollinating insects could get at them.

[JohnN]

Four of my pots were from last year, two from seeding the suckers into new pots this year, but they all seem to have developed at same pace. They are all outside. There are lots of fruit, it's just the size that's the problem - I've had about six normal sized and about 26 tinies.
John N

[Elaine]

Hi John. I can only recommend watering and feeding. As soon as our strawberries start flowering, I start watering regularly and give them a weekly feed with tomato food. I never let the compost dry out. We have had some whoppers so far and plenty of good sized fruits. Even last years runners are producing respectable berries.
We have 30 buckets with 3 plants in each and last weekend, I harvested 4lbs of fruit which in turn, produced eight jars of jam. I picked another pound and a half yesterday, all good sized berries.

I think they are Cambridge but can't be certain, as we started with 12 plants bought from the garden centre, five years ago and all the plants we have now are from runners.
Hope this might be of some help.
Cheers.