Help with Day Neutral Strawberries

OK, maybe I'm just being too impatient, but we haven't seen any strawberries yet. I have a 4x4 box with Tribute and Mara Des Bois strawberries which were sown as transplants on April 30th. They seem to be growing, but have produced VERY few flowers (none yet on the Mara Des Bois). I get excited each time I see a flower, and it turns into a little green berry, but then it seems to dry up and go away. I have a bird net over the box so the birds in our yard don't get to them, but I don't know why we aren't seeing any edible fruit yet.

Strawberries are the favorite fruit in our house, and I was really looking forward to plentiful harvests. Is it simply too soon?

Strawberries produce very few if any berries the first year. In fact, if any blossoms arrive, you should pick them off so the plant can use its energy to produce a strong root system.
The 2nd and 3rd year is when you will get lots of berries. After than the plants will decline so you need to make room for the runners to root and be your mothers the following year.

I planted two June Bearing plants and got a handful of strawberries from them. (Didn't have the will power to pick off the blossoms!) But I also planted 22 bare roots (11 June bearing and 11 Everbearing), thinking I'd pick the blossoms off of them this year. However, I only have green on 5 of the 22, and no blossoms to pick off. Curious if this is typical or if I did something wrong. And will the bare roots still do anything for next year of they're not greening up yet? Should I replace them yet this year to get a start for next year? Or just wait for next year?

Thanks, Quiltbea! I had read in some other threads that some people pick off the blossoms the first year to increase yield the second year, but I didn't realize that the first year that you barely get any blossoms to begin with. I guess we'll just have to keep buying organic strawberries for now, and hold out for eating our own next year. Or is it possible to buy 2-year transplants? so that we can get berries still this season?

My 2010 bare-roots are loaded with berries this year! Not trying to rub it in, trying to tell you that if this year came around for this very impatient gardener, next year really will come around for you, and will be well worth it!

As they say: "Patience is a virtue". So, I guess I'd better find some! Thanks, Martha.

If they are day neutral, you may get berries the next time around - later this year. I've read you should snip the blossoms in June, but it is fine to let them develop berries later in the year. i have new June bearing, ever-bearing, and day neutral this year. I snipped off the first round of blossoms, and I'm curious to see what will happen with the ever-bearing and day neutral as time goes on. Our ever-bearing varieties have another round of blossoms.

MotherEarthNews.com has a helpful article, search for 'Grow Superb Strawberries'. I also got a lot of tips from a catalog a friend at a nursery gave me. The web site has the same info: IndianaBerry.com.

Keep us posted! =]

Vickster thanks for the info. I'll be sure to look up the article on MotherEarthNews.com I removed the very few blossoms that I had on my berries, and right now they seem to be shooting off runners, so I guess there still some life in them. It would be great to get some berries later in the year though!

I'm growing Tribute strawberries. In Mel's Mix, of course! I started mine late spring last year (25 bare root plants from Burpee). I did not remove any flowers -- just couldn't do it! They were kind of sparse the first year, but we had strawberries up through late September.

Here they are on September 3, 2010...


The crates started falling apart so I separated the plants and ended up with 7 of the cedar planters w/ 4 -5 plants per pot. I had also started new ones from the runners. We surrounded the planters and covered the plants with straw over the winter.

This spring we had double the blossoms and double the fruit. Here they are on May 24, 2011...


Closeup so you can see all the berries!


I picked the last berries from the spring blooming about two weeks ago. Then last week I clipped off all the old fruit stems and any dead or dying leaves. All the plants have new growth coming up now. I believe these type are supposed to bear about every six weeks, so I expect to see more the latter part of July. Then if the hard frosts hold off, I should have more in September!

Oh yeah, and I've got 22 new plants from the runners this spring!

pattipan

Pattipan - Beautiful containers and strawberries! You give me hope!

Here is a picture of my "berry-less" strawberry bed (I've been pinching off any flowers, but I haven't seen any new ones in a while). The plants seem healthy though, and are putting out lots of new runners. I still have bird netting attached to the framing over the box from when I was trying to let the blossoms go to berries and keep the birds out of the bed.



The empty squares in the middle did have spinach seedlings, but because of the extremely wet then extremely hot weather we had, they didn't make it. I'll try spinach in those squares again in late-summer/early-fall.

Just thought I would report on my Tribute day-neutral strawberries. They are now blooming and bearing again this week. Runners are coming out like crazy! I started 22 new plants from the spring runners...how many more do I want/need? I think I may pot some of them to give away and trim the rest off. They don't seem to mind the heatwave we've been having. As long as I keep them watered, they seem to thrive in it. I now have 10 cedar planters + 2 window boxes and a single one in a flower pot (out of curiosity) -- it has a berries on it too!

I bought myself a small ice cream maker last month...guess what I am going to make this weekend?







pattipan

Homemade strawberry ice cream! Lucky you, Pattipan! I have been plucking the blooms off my berry plants as instructed, but noticed that one set of plants seems to be pretty determined to set fruit, so I've decided to let it go. I'd love to be able to actually eat a few homegrown berries this year myself.