Feeding strawberries

[vivienz]

My ciflorette strawberries are putting on a reasonable second flush of flower and fruit at the moment. I've started watering the plants as the soil is bone dry, but I wondered whether it's worth giving them a little feed of something like tomato food in case they exhaust themselves for next year. I'm a little cautious in case they put on lots of weak growth if I feed them - hmm. Any help, as ever, would be much appreciated.
Vivien

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Vivienz, i would have thought tomato food would be ideal for the stawberries, as it will help the flowers, fruit, and put the plants in good shape for next year. Stick to the makers recommendations on dilution amount though.

[Elderflower]

I`m in the process of moving my strawberries from the allotment bed to containers in the back garden, (they all got nicked at the lottie!)
Should I give them a feed too? or is that just for ones that are fruiting now?

[vivienz]

Hi Elderflower,
I would have thought just a bit of general fertilizer such as growmore would do the trick for you. I was only wondering about feeding mine tom food as they fruited prolifically earlier this year and are having a good go again - I don't want them to have no oomph left by the time we get to next May!
Vivien

p.s. thanks OH - it's quite a good way to use up my left over tom food, too!

[Primrose]

Mine have started fruiting again and a couple of weeks ago I threw down a few handfuls of chicken manure pellets and watered well in. But I suspect a soluble feed would have been better because that night I looked out into the front garden and saw a fox sniffing very intently along the whole length of the strawberry bed. Suspect he was trying to find the the creature who had laid the pellets !

[Tigger]

Our first flush of strawberries were badly affected by the rain, but the second lot are wonderful. We'll separate and re-plant them after they've produced another lot of fruit.

[strawberry tart]

Hi Vivienz, I dont think a weak tomato feed will do any harm at all. I think the weather will be a bigger influence on the crop.Some form of cover if they are outside would help.
Regards to next years crop I dont know wether yours are inside or out? but it is my understanding that Strawberries respond to a cold period I always bring all my pot grown plants outside for the winter...Strawberry. T.
p.s. I think I read that they were double croppers?

[vivienz]

Hi ST,
Yes, the bumph on ciflorette does say that they should give a second crop. We're predicted to have a little light rain over the next couple of weeks, but nothing much other than that, and no ground frosts. I think I'll leave them open to the elements just to see how they get on - if they struggle too much, I'll know to give them some cover next year.
I have already picked a few of the fruits - they are lovely and sweet, but not quite with the gorgeous bursting sugaryness of the first flush, but very nice nonetheless. The texture is also firmer, but I think that may be due to lack of moisture as much as anything. Either way, I still rate them very highly.
Vivien

[strawberry tart]

Hi Vivienz, did you get my pm to you?

[vivienz]

Hi St,
Yes, I did get the PM, but you can't have received my reply which I sent that day. The gist of it was that I'm off to France for a week on Saturday, but I have been clearing my strawb bed & will gladly send you some runners. The snag is that I have 2 varieties in the same bed - I will endeavour to give you just the ciflorette, but there may be a few strays in there. I will try and get them away to you tomorrow. Let me know where to send them.
Best wishes,
Vivien

[strawberry tart]

Hi Vivienz, My details are in a pm sent today Tks.

[Johnboy]

Hi Vivien,
I feel that you should treat your Autumn flush of Strawberry exactly the same as you did the main flush. I mean the result you are after is the same.
I do hope that you enjoy your week in France and only wish I was in your shoes.
JB.

[vivienz]

Thanks, Johnboy. I can't wait to get myself to a local market & goggle at their produce. I'm going to the south west, due west of Bordeaux, so we should still get some reasonable weather. Basically a week of cycling, kayaking and scoffing loads of lovely food - couldn't be better!
Vivien