TIME TO PLAN NEXT YEARS STRAWBERRIES
Strawberry growing
has always been a mixture of producing a very healthy and tasty fruit and
rising to the challenge of growing them big, disease free, and over as long a
season as possible. Way back to teenage years the normal growers season
coincided with the school summer holidays as we were the pickers together with
local folk from towns and villages. So the main picking was in early July.
Growers had not yet discovered polythene tunnels.
My horticultural career took
me south to a farm in West Sussex in the late sixties where I first saw fields
protected with low tunnels growing Red Gauntlet ready for picking in early
June. However botrytis was a problem with most varieties at that time, so the
crop got three sprays of fungicide plus a contact and residual weedkiller
before the straw was run up the rows. Crops were still picked by our farm team
of ladies from the village, plus local gypsies and many Londoners looking for
some work in the sun with fresh air, good fruit to eat and good money if you
worked hard. This was a working holiday for many of them.
Strawberry Elsanta |
Elsanta in tunnels |
Today strawberry
growing has moved on dramatically. Almost all the crop is commercially grown
under tall tunnels and new varieties are not prone to botrytis, and as they are
container grown there is no need for weed control around the plant.
On a garden scale we
now have new varieties appearing every year so we can try out something
different to sort out those that work best for our own locality. The challenge
today is to pick the first strawberries well ahead of Wimbledon. With the right
early variety such as Mae grown under a low polythene tunnel I can get my first
berries by the third week in May.
Anna cooking strawberry jam |
To sit outside on
the patio on a sunny day for lunch with a plate of fresh strawberries you know
summer has arrived, and it is only going to get better. Once you start to pick
more than you can eat there is plenty for jam, compote and freezing. Where
would we be without that freezer. It doesn’t seem that long ago when I was making
110 jars of jam (strawberry, raspberry and blackcurrant) during the berry
season to last the next twelve months provided you stored them somewhere cool.
We went through two pounds of jam every week, but needed it as lifestyle was
very active looking after family, garden, allotment, car and home maintenance
and weekend walks in the countryside.
Culture
I still grow my
strawberries in rows three feet apart, spacing the plants six to twelve inches
apart depending on availability of runners. With new varieties it may be wise
to just take two seasons fruiting instead of the traditional three years as
some are reluctant to produce runners after a couple of years. Today weed
control is by hand or hoeing making sure the ground is clear before the straw
is placed up the rows just before the first fruits start to show colour.
Lifting strong runners |
Botrytis, red core
and mildew are no longer a problem with modern varieties, but slugs, snails and
birds just love them so slug pellets are essential and netting over the crop
should keep the birds at bay. Other early varieties to try include Christine
and Honeoye. Maincrop varieties include Elsanta Alice and Hapil, then two good
late season strawberries are Florence and Symphony, but to continue the season
into September look for the perpetual varieties like Flamenco. I tried Albion,
but bright red berries with a texture like a wee red turnip did not impress me,
and Colossus was not at all big and the plants had plenty of leaves but very
few berries. It is getting dug out.
Tomatoes will
continue to ripen for a few days if the sun returns, but once the crop is over
and the old plants get cleared out take the chance of the free space to grow
some winter salads. Whether you grew your tomatoes in bags, pots or border it
is a good idea to be well prepared by sowing the salads well in advance then
prick out into cellular trays so they are a decent size for transplanting. Use
a variety of winter hardy spring onion, winter hardy lettuce e.g. Hilde or
Winter Density, some radish and Mezuna, Rocket or mixed salad leaves. Lightly
fork over the surface and add some fertiliser then water plants in after
planting.
END