Okay, well 2 can play at the big strawberry game!! Picked several like this, and they are as sweet as sugar. I am with you Sjoerd, home grown, slow sun ripened strawbs are just the sweetest, most delicious thing. Mark loves the scent and before I can prep them he sticks his nose in the basket to inhale their sweet perfume. I am saving runners, not only from my own plants, but from several of my customers who also grow strawbs so I can have a nice mixed patch of fruit. YUMYUM!
Ain't that a beauty! I like the scent of ripe strawberries in the warm sun too. It wafts about with the changing wind directions. What a pleasure. It really is difficult not to just eat and eat when you have a big load of them, isn't it. I was surveying my strawbs today. I am guessing one more harvest, then I shall remove all remaining fruits, clean the beds and stake the runners. After I have planted the runner plantlets in the new bed, in august, then I will give them a bit of bloodmeal and continue the watering until the rains return in the fall. It just goes on and on and on.... Great to see your marvelous harvest.
Sjoerd, what do you mean by "stake the runners," if you don't mind? My one little strawb has runners.
Hi Daisy "Staking down the runners".... What I mean by that is that after the harvest, I arrange the runners left and right of the plants along the direction of the bed. It sort of keeps them organised and prevents them from growing any which way they please--like out into the path, for instance. It is important to me that they are organised because I want to easily identify the plantlets that I wish to transfer to the next year's bed. I wrote something about this last year. Here is the link: http://www.gardenstew.com/viewtopic.php ... ng+strawbs I used the term, "tack down" instead of "staking" in the posting, but the process is the same whatever you want to call it. You can also see how much of the foliage I removed as a part of the process. Is it clear? If not, I will be happy to try again.
Hey Sjoerd, Thanks. Both posts are helpful -- I put the other one in favorites to refer back to. I will have to think this strawberry patch thing through... where to put it...
Oh boy! I am glad that they were helpful. I hope that you can find a place, if you want a bed. selecting the most sunny spot is the most important thing--the rest can be fine-tuned to get things just right. Good luck, Miss D.
Good grief what did you feed them? They look awesome! I agree with the larger strawberries not being as sweet as their smaller counterparts. Excellent harvest for you! I miss fresh strawbs Jenn
