Strawberry help please

[GlenAmple]

I'm new to growing Strawberries, I just got my first plants a few weeks ago and I'm allowing a few of them to fruit. What I'd like to know is, when are strawberries ready to pick?

I picked one a couple of weeks ago when it was red but it was very sour and didn't really taste of much, the next one I left until the day after I noticed it was red but it was starting to go soft at the top but tasted really nice apart from that. I've got another couple that are nearly red all over and I hope to get it right this time.

Can they be picked when they are nearly ripe and be finished off on a sunny window sill?

[bramble]

You would be better off leaving the fruit on the plant until its really red.
Gives the fruit a chance to ripen properly and it will be sewwter for it.

[rustylady]

Agree with bramble, but if you really only got your plants a few weeks ago you shouldn't let them fruit this year. Where are you growing them (in pots or in open ground)

[GlenAmple]

Thanks for the replies but the Strawberries were really red when picked. As for the ripening on the window sill, my 7year old daughter decided that the two Strawbs that were just about ready, should be picked but they were still pinkish on one side . I put them on the window sill over night and by this morning the were starting to look over-ripe but they tasted divine Maybe the sour, tasteless one is just to do with the variety? The sour one was Elsanta, the nice one was Darselect and the third variety, Albion, hasn't produced any fruit yet but there is a couple starting to develop.

rustylady I realise, from having read it on here, that they shouldn't be allowed to fruit in their first year and that runners should be removed in the first year too but the plants that were allowed to fruit were much bigger than the ones that had their flowers removed and still are much bigger. I also wanted to see for myself what difference it makes, if it makes any at all. I have read (on here I think) that it doesn't make any difference at all

Btw, my Strawberries are in pots, I might take some runners next year to plant in the ground.