I'm a new gardener and probably did a dumb thing. I planted strawberry plants (everbearing) in a raised bed of composted cow manure (from our cow pasture). The plants look very healthy but do not have any flowers or berries. I'm guessing it's too much nitrogen and not enough phosphorus. Any suggestions on how to correct this problem? I have superphosphate I can add to the soil but thought I'd ask more experienced people first. Thanks! -Trish (Missouri)
Strawberries:foliage and runners but why no flowers?
I think if it were me, I'd take a good representative soil sample to a garden center to be tested. Take small shovels from several places, mix it in a bucket and take a sample of that. They should be able to tell you what is needed.
Thanks, Vashur, for the suggestion. I'll probably have to do that- if I can FIND the soil ;) .
UH, I thought you meant you added composted manure *to* the soil. It should have been added and mixed in. I did recently *add* a layer of compost to the top of my bed but that was more to act as a mulch for the clay bed underneath than as an immediate nutrient source. We have had so much rain this year that the bed was crusting really bad and I was tired of having to cultivate it every week to keep the crust off so moisture could actually be absorbed. I also fertilized and used Preen at the same time. This was a bed I had renewed this spring and it is starting to look real nice but we were having way too much rain this spring to put the compost in like I should have.
The WHOLE bed is composted cow manure (mixed with other stuff since we scraped it up out of the cow pasture). Dumb, huh? All of our soil is clay and rock so for flower and vegetables we remove the soil, put in cow manure and usually bagged top soil, then some of the original soil. This time, though -because I was in a hurry- I skipped the bagged topsoil and some original soil. The plants are putting out LOTS of runners and have a healthy look. Just no strawberries. They are the everbearing variety.
Wish we could send some of your rain to the eastern states! We just got back from a trip and it's really dry there.
Sorry-I'm a beginner garderner. What's "Preen"? Thanks for your comments!
Preen is a /preemergent/ herbicide to help keep weed seeds from germinating.
Motrish,
I've been growing strawberries in my small garden for years. I also grow an everbearing variety (eversweet). The problem is that the term "everbearing" is very misleading.
Everbearing types will begin putting out lots of flowers and fruit in early spring and will continue for a couple of months or more. Then, the fruit production will fall off drastically because the plants change from making fruit to putting out runners. They generally do not do both at the same time. You will still get a few strawberries, but as you have noticed, it seems like a new runner or 2 is popping out of each plant almost every day.
This is my second year for growing 'eversweet'. I bought one plant at home depot in a 4" pot around April of '06. After about 6 weeks of getting a reasonable crop from that one plant, it started putting out runners. By September I had a total of 56 new plants just from the runners. That's because the runners actually "hopscotch" accross the ground. A runner will grow out 12"-18" from the parent plant, put down roots, and hopscotch another 12"-18". Just one runner may produce 6 or 8 or more new plants.
If you already have plenty of plants and don't want any more, you can pinch off the runners. This will do 2 things for you. It will keep you from being overrun with new plants AND it will force the parent plant to retain and store energy for berry production, for BOTH this fall and next spring. A fall crop will be much smaller than a spring crop, but pinching off the runners will give you a few more berries in the fall.
Invariably, a second year plant will be very productive. The photo shown is a total of 8 plants grown from last summer's runners. The bed is 3'x5'. The photo was taken around the first of May of this year. I got nearly a pint of berries from each plant.
I'm getting almost no berries now, but I'm pinching off runners every day. Hope this helps.
Thanks blmlb, that is very helpful. I'm seeing exactly what you described. "everbearing" is misleading. I've started trimming the plants back. I feel like a murderer and my daughter is having a fit but I know trimming off the runners will ultimately produce more strawberries. Thanks for your comments and picture!
Motrish,
If you are feeling very generous, you can always let a few runners grow and when it looks like the runner is ready to put down roots, hold it in place with a twig over a 12 oz styro cup of dirt, and continue that process. By the end of summer you will have many new plants that you can give away to friends and neighbors.
Next spring it is most likely that the only critters that will be annoying is the occassional bird that likes to take a bite out of a ripe berry. OR, roly-polies (pill bugs). They like to nibble on a ripe berry. They don't eat much, only enough to make you want to throw the berry away.
I've never had much problem with birds, but the pill bugs can be a problem. One way I have minimized their effect is to avoid mulching the plants. Mulch gives the pill bugs a great place to hide during the heat of the day.
I don't know if there is a good 'non-pesticide' product to keep them at bay. I typically use a chemical granular product made by Ortho called 'Home Defense Max' that I sprinkle around the perimeter of the raised bed. I don't know if it is a contact poison or if they eat it. Either way, it works, and I don't contaminate my strawberries.
I'm guessing that your composted cow manure will do you well. I doubt that you need to add any super phosphate. I added maybe a cupfull of phosphate (0-18-0 to my bed before I transplanted) along with a little epsom salts, a little dolomite lime and a couple of cups of 4-month BB-sized granules of balanced Osmocote fertilizer, all of it mixed into the bed. But your dirt is much different than mine. Mine is all sand, yours is not.
I've come to find that one of the biggest hurdles for backyard strawberry gardeners to overcome is impatience. When we plant'em, we want to see results that season. But that's just not the way the plants work. They need a good 12 months to grow a really good root system before you can really expect an impressive crop you can brag about. And all of that time, you have to keep an eye on them to ensure they have adequate water, occassionally a bit of fertilizer side dressing. That might be one of the reasons they are so darn expensive in the grocery store. Just stick with them. And remember that old cartoon picture of two buzzards sitting on a tree limb, one of them saying to the other, "Patience, my a$$" :-)
Very good suggestions! And thanks for the pillbug warning. I hadn't thought about sharing the runner plants with friends but I bet several would like to have strawberry plants.
We do have a pesky red-wing blackbird living in the reeds of our pond nearby. When the strawberry plants were producing, he'd (or she) would take one peck out of each berry. Who wants to eat a berry tasted by a bird? He might at least eat the whole thing. (Maybe that's what he's doing and I just haven't caught him at it). We took down our bird feeder hoping he'd move somewhere else but he seems to enjoy this area. I wouldn't mind him so much but he has the most nerve-wrenching screech that I've ever heard from a bird!
I'm growing my plants in a strawberry jar. I bought three plants and have 7 now. (I keep cutting off the runners.) I'm trying to save the some pockets for other strawberry variety. But it's a good idea to try rooting a few in styofoam cup. Think I'll try do a few that way.. Maybe I can trade that for the other species.. :)
Ico, not sure I know what a 'strawberry jar' is. Is it one of those large terra cotta pots with holes on the sides? Regardless, you can exponentially increase the number of plants by 'catching' and rooting those runners.
blmlb..
yeah.. The strawberry jar is the large terra cotta pots with pockets on the sides. I've removing the runner to save the extra pockets for other strawberry varieties I want to check out.. But I think I'll root some extra runner to trade...
Lindy
Geez, everyone's refering to me as lco.. Make me think loco.. But then again, I think my DH would agree with the loco part.. :)
Motrish,
You might just have a vicious, strawberry predator. :-) I've had a few of those in the past. I watched a bluebird visit the birdbath, which was fun to watch, and then fly directly to my strawberry plants for one or 2 bites. They really are cocky, aggressive little buggers. But they never hung around long enough to eat a whole berry.
I tried a rubber snake. Didn't work. I mounted a plastic owl on a post. Didn't work. I finally bought a length of bird netting that I draped over the plants. It worked.
I can almost guarantee you that your blackbird is not taking the time to eat the whole strawberry. He's just there to mess up your harvest. And just there to try something he's not really sure he likes. Sorry about the screeching, I have no quick fixes for wrapping his beak with duct tape. heehee.
At least he's doing through the strawberries. Our crows here are going into the trash. They are smart. If you put the trash bag out in a trash can with a lid closed shut, the crow will tear through the bag (even if triple or quadruple bagged) and get trash all over your yard.. I'd rather loose some strawberries than run all over the yard and the neighbor's yard picking up trash...
OK, loco, you got it. It's now your official nickname. Tell the DH you are now known by that handle.
I tried one of those large terra cotta pots with the pockets on the sides a few years back. I ran into one minor problem and one major problem.
The minor problem was that I had to rotate the pot every day or 2 so that the plants on the shady side would get adequate sunlight. Not a big problem, since I was out there every day, anyway.
The major problem, which took a bit of time to surface, was that when I dumped good dirt into the pot and then planted my plants in the holes, everything seemed kosher. But as the season wore on, the dirt in the pot settled more and more. And as it did so, it pulled the strawberry plants down into the holes. By the end of the season, the crowns of the plants in the lower half of the pot had pretty much disappeared. The settling soil had pulled them down into the pot 1"-2". For strawberry plants, I had to give it up. Great idea, NOT great results.
I even tried it all over again the next year, trying to compact the soil as I added it to the pot. Good news is that the plants didn't get sucked down into the pot. Bad news is that the soil was so compacted that the plants didn't grow worth a hoot. sometimes you just can't win.
I stil have one of those planters, but I do not use it for strawberries.
LOCO, Sounds like your crows have an IQ a few points higher than most politicians. Are you surprised? I'm not.
blmlb. loll.. Loco... I think the crows are on some sort of brain steroid cuz we travel full-time in two week intervals. And these bird come back every other sunday morning right when we're leaving. I swear, their brains know our travel schedule and when they can get a free meal.. I mean, they're only there when we're heading out of town...
Hummm... The thing with the strawberry pots I've noticed is that terra cotta heats up a lot faster and much hotter than other material. I did have that sinking but I kinda for got to water down the soil when I planted them. So, I just kinda loosen the area a bit and pulled up the plants to add more soil. They're doing fine now. I don't think that I have that compacting problem cuz I add soil moist to the mixture.. The polymer crystal swells up with water and shrinks as it gives it back to the soil when the soil dries. Maybe that crystal's swelling and shrinking is deeping the soil from compacting too much for me..
Ico, that's a good point you make. The polymer crystals may be offering a growing advantage that might not otherwise be apparent. I've never tried them. But then, we are what, 600+ miles apart?
And from what you tell me about the crows, I am now convinced that they are as smart as politicians. If they know "...when they can get a free meal..." then it is certain that the only difference between them and your average politician is their lack of the ability to speak the English language. Every politician knows how to get a free meal. But then, that may not be a major shortcoming, because most politicians do not know how to speak understandable English, either.
Give me a ballot. I'm going to vote for a crow! LOL.
lolll That's great.. Vote for a crow.
One thing I've noticed with the polymer crystals is that it will help soak up water so plants don't end up in standing water after a rain storm. I had ran out of SoilMoist at one point and potted a container without it. That container had very small drainage holes.. Needless to say, it didn't do too well. The roots ended up going bad from the slow draining rain water.. My other pots (with Soilmoit) did great, even with small drainage holes.. So, it was absorbing the excess water for me without me realizing it.. Good to know huh...
Hey, uh, Loco, I didn't quite catch the name of that republican you might favor over a smart crow. Guess it doesn't much matter. If the media would just add a smart crow to the polls, I believe we might just have a new front runner.
Really does not matter if he is a dem or a rep, -- a smart crow, even an independent crow, but one who appeals to the public, is likely to find a following. I'm withholding my judgement about all of them until I see a candidate who has a bird's name. Maybe "Chicken Little", or "Tweetie", or maybe "Foghorn Leghorn" (I don't think that the 99 year old fellow from the deep south, named Bird, is much of a runner.)
Anyway, I've been told that polymer crystals soak up huge amounts of water, and release that water gradually over time. You are way out of my league on that issue.
I guess I'm just "old school". The very, very important thing about strawberry plants is to maintain a reasonably moist soil for them. Not sopping wet, but not bone dry.
And they really do not need all that much fertilizing. Start them out with a decent fert to get them started, and maybe a mild side dressing of fert around mid summer. They just tend to take care of themselves without much help.
DG does not let us talk politics, but I'm gambling that any crow that appears to be smarter than any other political front runner, DG might just bend the rules to allow us to promote that crow. If not, we will have to go underground to get our crow elected. :-)
Vote for the Crow. That'll be a hoot.
Yeah.. I use Soil Moist in all my containers. And it does swell but the size depends on the purity of the water too. Like a good rain storm, it wells up really really big. The city water big but not huge. Maybe that's why it function the way it does... Humm.. Food for thought..
I planted some about 20 years ago in a cow manure enriched bed and had beautiful rich, lucious plants, without much for berris. Too much nitrogen. For berries you want only moderate nitrogen and more P and K. Look at the formula for strawberry plant food. Nitrogen is not the biggee.
Thanks for your comments Jamlover. Do you think just adding P and K to the soil would help already established plants?
Dunnoo.. can be a fluke.. but I used Superthrive with my watering two weeks ago and it went nuts.. Gianormous healthy leaves, buds and blooms and runners everywhere...