Page 26 - Simply Vegetables Winter 2021/22

Strawberry ‘Loran’
Planting new-young Strawberry plants
Planting time extends from September to March. The liking being early winter, which gives them a better chance to develop into good, strong plants.
Space them at 2ft.intervals down rows and 21⁄2ft. apart, keeping the growing point above soil level. If the weather continues to be dry, water them well and as often as is necessary until growth restarts.
Establishing plants in year 1
Young plants, grown strongly in the nursery ready to be planted into a bed. My first winter
management starts in
frequently, avoiding wetting the crowns, as this can encourage and spread disease.
Looking after the fruiting bed in years 2 & 3 and getting ready for the first year of production.
The frost, unhappily, is the main reason why strawberries fail to produce a crop. So I am prepared to cover the rows with some 35 gram fleece. No doubt about it, when the frost kills-off the flowers there will be no fruit!
Mulching the rows of strawberries is a traditional recommended with small scale production.
Strawberries on shelving
ground moisture and keeping the ripening berries clean and off the damp soil surface. This year I mulched with spent growbag compost which contained unused blood, fish and bone slow release nutrients, much to appetite and delight of local foxes who dug up the plants!
After winter, a programme for your first crop of berries
In April keep the bed clean by forking in the mulch residues and feed a high potash general fertiliser. Nipping off all malformed & tiny fruit.
During May, if overnight frost threatens the developing berries, the beds still need protecting with fleece. Finally, just before the fruit turns colour, a well-placed net will put the birds off, especially if it is well secured and supported above the plants.
June is the key month of harvest, ask anyone at Wimbledon! This is
the time to keep the beds as clean as possible. Gathering fruit in a morning, while they are still clean, red, and deliciously juicy.
October by firming the soil round the roots of new young plants. I feed and protect them from excessive cold and wet.
Through the spring months until to June and July, I continue to hoe regularly, at the same time as removing unwanted flowers and runners before they gain any size.
The frost, unhappily, is the main reason why strawberries fail to produce a crop
It is recognised as good management to use loose clean barley straw as an ideal insulator, allowing decent air-flow and preventing loss of heat, thus maintaining
a higher temperature round the blooms. A layer of the mulch is spread along the soil surface at least 2 inches thick at various times during the growing
Each week I will spray with a diluted high potash liquid fertilizer, and regularly take the netting off so birds can have a free feed on any pests!
While the new plants are developing in the growing season and during a dry period, you will see me watering
season. Providing a twofold purpose, first to feed the soil and then the plants that grow in it.
Mulches generally consist of some bulky organic material, chopped straw, grass clippings or peat, greatly reducing weeds established round the strawberry plants, conserving
26 Simply Vegetables