I have grown a big beautiful, dark green strawberry plant, but only two berries have been produced. The two strawberries were healthy and a beautiful red and just died after being harvested. I just don't know why I didn't see any more berries? The plant itself is absolutely glorious, healthy and strong. But simply no berries. What's going on?
Hardiness Zone: 10a
By Linda from Tustin, CA
You need to check the variety of plant you have there are plants that only give fruit once a year as well as varieties that are ever bearing such as a Quinalt
You can always add mushroom compost; my favorite for using on plants. Gave some to my daughter and she raved about how great her strawberries were!
I had the same problem this year, the first time I have tried to grow them in pots. I think the soil was too rich, being new, and this generally gives plenty of green growth but little fruit.
Is it possible you over fed them? Also don't they need one full season when not much is produced?
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Hardiness Zone: 5a
Thank You,
Joyce wis from Janesville, WI
A: Joyce,
Everbearing strawberries usually produce two to three crops each season-one in the spring and another one or two smaller crops toward fall. Since you have already pinpointed that your plants stop producing when they start throwing out runners, I would definitely reel them in by cutting at least some of them off.
Also make sure that you renovate your beds in the fall (set the lawn mower to 1 1/2 to 2 inches and mow down the leaves and stems) and add some compost over the entire bed. Try applying a fertilizer specially designed for fruit crops. It could be that your plants just don't have enough steam to produce a second crop.
Did you train them the first season-forgoing berries for the first few months in favor of developing strong roots)? If not, maybe they didn't get a strong enough start to produce multiple crops. Depending on the age of your plants, not renovating the beds will result in a loss of productivity also. The University of Wisconsin Extension Office has a great publication entitled "Growing Strawberries in Wisconsin."
Ellen
I would take the pine needles off of them. Alot of plants don't like the pine needles and it kills the plants or distorts their growth. Wish I could remember more about them. Hope this helps. Good Luck
I'm far from knowing alot about how to grow these, but I was given 11 plants 6 years ago - were nice and "contained" for the first year & of course no berries, the 2nd year was wonderful, berries & very pleased to see runners growing...4th year after surviving a hard winter in Nova Scotia (which I did not cover them either!) they started to take over into the flower garden as well as producing great berries. I did get quite aggressive in pulling out the new runners and did again this spring. The orginial & 2nd year plants are growing & lots of blooms, with at least 6 berries ripening now, which is quite early for Nova Scotia.
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I purchased and planted a dozen strawberry plants for my 5-year-old son, thinking that he would have fun watching his favorite fruit grow. So far, none of them have produced any viable fruit. Can you help? Are strawberries temperature sensitive?
