Grow Your Own Magazine

1. strawberries

My strawberry crop this year was pretty miserable, I know it could be due to the bad summer (or lack thereof!) but I've also been told that a strawberry plants first crop is the smallest and it's 2nd is bigger and it's 3rd/last crop is the biggest, is this true? Personally I've always thought it was the other way around lol!

2. raspberries

I'm thinking of buying some raspberry plants from Lidl (probably not the best source but I can't seem to find them anywhere else lol) will they produce a bigger crop if they are kept indoors on a windowsill? I'm wondering the same for the strawberries, I've always kept them outside but seeing as I only have 2 fully grown plants and 6 babies I was thinking of putting them on the windowsills to see if that will improve the quantity/size/taste of the crop!

Sorry for making it so long lol, hopefully it makes sense.
Thanks in advance for any advice!

Salina
I seem to remember being told that strawberries need a period of winter cold, they are very hardy and mine are growing like mad again after being chopped back in the autumn.
I had a good crop, got a huge bed of them (because I love strawberries) have given them a good feed, done the weeding and as the fruit was forming put straw down. Apart from slug damage they've been no trouble at all. So don't know why yours have not done so well.
I'd just recommend having a number of different varieties, apart from tasting them all, you can find your favourites, find the most vigorous plants and take out any that don't do well/don't taste so good.

As to raspberries, I know the cheapo shop fruit is, well cheap, but somewhere down the line, someone must be getting screwed on price. Sounds like Tesco/Sainsburys and British farmers all over again. Are they even grown in this country? If you go to a plant nursery you can get good bare-rooted stock and choice of varieties. Victoriana are good, Welsh fruit stocks for organically grown fruit, Dobies, Thompson and Morgan, Ken Muir plus many others all sell a variety of soft fruits.
Good luck with your fruit
Sue

Hi Salina,
Regarding your question about raspberries You won't be able to grow them on your window sills as they will be to tall. My summer fruiting ones "Glen Ample" are 8' You will see a thread by me 'Autumn Raspberry June J' where I am querying them flowering at 3'. You might get away with strawberries indoors and certainly in a green house, but if you've no room try very large tubs ie 3' dia which is working well for me.

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It's not the growing old I mind but the growing stupid with it!

Hi Selina, I bought my raspberry canes in Lidl about three years ago and have had great crops from them. They were only the cheap ones but did great for me. You have to keep them outside as they grow tall.
Good luck and go for them.

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And when you're back stops aching,
And you're hands begin to harden.
You will find yourself a partner,
In the glory of the garden.

Rudyard Kipling.

Thanks! The windows in this house we're renting are almost floor to ceiling so them growing tall wouldn't be a problem for the next year at least lol!

If raspberries grow 8 foot outdoors you can probably double that height for indoors. Have you got 16 foot high windows. Pollination could be another issue!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

LOL... Salina, are you sure you're not living in the greenhouse? bb

Anyway, they throw out such a thicket of new shoots that they'd be climbing out of the pot by next year.

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bazzaboy, no lol, unfortunatly, just living in a modern style house for the next year that has massive windows everywhere, eww..... I want my cottage back lol.

I'm going to be buying them from Lidl so hopefully they will grow that big. According to other people that have bought them from there have grown fairly big.....
They are bare-rooted though, so not sure what I do.....just bury the roots in a pot of soil and wait for them to start ''waking up'' and growing? (I presume they are dormant lol)

Hi Salina, you should check whether they're autumn or summer type raspberries as well because you treat them slightly differently re: pruning etc. The autumn ones don't grow as tall & can be grown in a large pot outdoors (mine are) & are usually cut right down to the ground in late winter/ very early spring & fruit on the new growth, summer ones are pruned after fruiting & the old canes which have fruited are cut down & new canes tied to supports as they will fruit the following summer. I got a raspberry plant in a pot from Tesco the other day for £1.75 in the sale but unfortunately it doesn't give the variety or type so I'm just leaving it alone waiting to see when it fruits & hoping for the best!

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Into every life a little rain must fall.