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Hi,
My first ever post on here......
I live in Scotland and decided that I would grown some strawberries for the first time this year. Since I may be moving house I decided to buy planters, which I filled with John Innes No. 3 compost and the plants themselves (Elegance and Flamenco). I did this in the middle of May.
The plants grew well but as soon as the fruit began to appear I became worried about it getting eaten by birds and slugs etc. So I did a bit of research and ended up buying a huge polytunnel greenhouse at the end of June. Instead of zipping up the door on this I covered the door space with bird netting.
The greenhouse seems fine and I'm getting a reasonable amount fruit. I have a few questions though as I'm a bit worried that I'm not doing things the best I can...........
• Is my polytunnel greenhouse set-up a good idea? Will this enhance the fruit in terms of quantity and taste or is it a detriment?
• Will my plants get adequately pollinated? This is why I have the door constantly open with the bird netting but is that actually necessary?
• How often should I water the plants
• In this set up, should I cover the entire greenhouse floor in straw (as well as the tops of the bags)? Currently I'm not using straw at all and a lot of the fruit is going mouldy
• I've read a lot about cutting off the runners, is this recommended and how exactly do I identify them?
• Do the runners need to be kept on for them to produce new plants or can I plant them once chopped off?
• Should I take the plants out of the greenhouse for the winter and until they are ready to fruit again?
• What type of straw should I use and where can I buy it?
• How do I make the strawberries as sweet as possible?
Any advice on these questions is very much appreciated. As is hopefully clear, I've already done a lot of research but a lot of the advice is conflicting and not specific to all of the elements of my situation.
My first ever post on here......
I live in Scotland and decided that I would grown some strawberries for the first time this year. Since I may be moving house I decided to buy planters, which I filled with John Innes No. 3 compost and the plants themselves (Elegance and Flamenco). I did this in the middle of May.
The plants grew well but as soon as the fruit began to appear I became worried about it getting eaten by birds and slugs etc. So I did a bit of research and ended up buying a huge polytunnel greenhouse at the end of June. Instead of zipping up the door on this I covered the door space with bird netting.
The greenhouse seems fine and I'm getting a reasonable amount fruit. I have a few questions though as I'm a bit worried that I'm not doing things the best I can...........
• Is my polytunnel greenhouse set-up a good idea? Will this enhance the fruit in terms of quantity and taste or is it a detriment?
• Will my plants get adequately pollinated? This is why I have the door constantly open with the bird netting but is that actually necessary?
• How often should I water the plants
• In this set up, should I cover the entire greenhouse floor in straw (as well as the tops of the bags)? Currently I'm not using straw at all and a lot of the fruit is going mouldy
• I've read a lot about cutting off the runners, is this recommended and how exactly do I identify them?
• Do the runners need to be kept on for them to produce new plants or can I plant them once chopped off?
• Should I take the plants out of the greenhouse for the winter and until they are ready to fruit again?
• What type of straw should I use and where can I buy it?
• How do I make the strawberries as sweet as possible?
Any advice on these questions is very much appreciated. As is hopefully clear, I've already done a lot of research but a lot of the advice is conflicting and not specific to all of the elements of my situation.
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