Strawberry Basket

Looking after your Strawberry Plants

Your strawberry plants will do best in a sunny spot on a patio or planted out in a sheltered spot in the garden. The more sunshine the fruits receive, the sweeter the fruit will taste. Strawberry plants are perennials and though they will dieback in the winter months you should expect them to crop for several years.

In hot spells make sure your plants are kept well watered and that the soil does not dry out. These plants have recently been repotted but they are quite greedy feeders so will benefit from regular feeding/ Each pot does contain slow release fertiliser but if you are keeping them in the original pots this year a soluble tomato or general purpose feed will also help keep the leaves healthy. Repotting them in summer will help to keep your plants watered and topped up with nutrients, but if you are feeding and watering regularly you can get away with waiting until the spring.

Keep the soil damp and the fruits in the sunshine and you should find the first fruits start to ripen in early June and will keep going for several weeks. When they have finished fruiting keep the soil damp but don’t worry when the leaves die back in the Autumn. They should start to shoot again when the soil warms up in spring and they can either be divided and/or repotted at that time.

Problem solving

Strawberries are tempting to birds, slugs and aphids so do watch out for pests and you may even to net your pots if you have a lot of trouble from birds.