Strawberry
plant
When
growing strawberry plants always buy your plants from a reputable supplier
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It is important to start with clean
stock as virus disease quickly leads to poor crops and undersize fruit. There is
no cure for virus except to destroy the plants and start again in fresh ground
with clean stock.
Traditionally, straw was put down around
strawberry plants in spring to protect
the fruit from being spoiled by mud splashes, and to keep down weeds.
Unfortunately, straw attracts pests such as slugs, snails and woodlice, which
eat the fruit. Strawberry mats around each plant are better and you can get
strawberry mats from |
You can try other
sorts of mulches to put around growing strawberries including black plastic and even newspaper. The
strawberries will need
to be covered with netting to keep
birds off.
Growing
strawberries need plenty of water after the first fruits have set.
So water well if the weather is dry at this time.
During late
summer and autumn your strawberries will start producing new plants
on runners and these can be used to make up fresh beds.
Strawberry
plants should be replaced every 3 years as the soil becomes exhausted and the crop size
diminishes dramatically. It is a good idea to plant up a fresh bed each summer
using the strongest runners...(more
about growing
strawberries)
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