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I like to think that I have a lot of success with my plants and my garden, despite the pests and diseases and the adverse weather conditions that seem to be the norm where I live in West Yorkshire but I have problems with growing strawberries; far bigger problems than I ever have with roses, and tomatoes, and herbs etc.
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| Self-seeded strawberry plant in garden |
I always use fresh potting compost for my tomatoes and strawberries but for some reason my strawberries either get botrytis mould which turns the fruits a disgusting, inedible grey, or the strawberries are often malformed. Why isn't that the case with my tomato plants which, supposedly, suffer the same or similar problems to strawberry plants?
While, at first, I thought I was going to have great success with strawberries, I began to have serious problems even though I replaced old strawberries with new ones (taken from runners) after the second year. Last year the situation was so bad that I got rid of all the Cambridge Favourites, Sonatas, Elsantas and Honeoyes which were ruined with botrytis (we had a very wet summer) and retained only the Perpetual Flower and Fruiting Strawberry (Everbearing) plants which seemed resistant.
This spring, after a long winter spent in individual pots, I transferred my healthy-looking Perpetual Strawberries into a freestanding trough and large pots, in fresh compost, but again I have problems.
The answer might well be the weather. According to the Royal Horticultural Society, strawberries are very easy to grow. However, the RHS webpage on strawberries (external link) does mention not to grow them in areas prone to frost. In fact, according to the University of California webpage on strawberries, (external link) my malformed strawberry problem is due to the severe weather. In future, I might have to consider either not growing them, or trying to grow them in protection the same way I grow my tomato plants now. See my tomato growhouse.
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