Tidying up the strawberries

 Last year the strawberries on the allotment didn't do at all well. There were other allotment people whose strawberry crops had failed too. They blamed it on weevils, which apparently eat at the roots and so destroy the plants. I think my strawberries failed because they were old. Strawberries work well on a 3/4 year rotation. It's usually best to get rid of them by the third or fourth year as they start to flag and don't produce much fruit. My strawberries had seen better days, when I thought about it I realised they were probably about five years old.

I grow my strawberries in big tubs and the bath and usually have year 1, year 2 and year 3 tubs. Each year I take cuttings from the runners to start a new year's crop. Well, that's my plan, but I haven't been very good at working to it for the last couple of years.

Last year I bought some new plants and planted them up in the bath, but being their first year there wasn't much fruit, they should do better this year. So this year I decided to get rid of all the old  plants in the other containers and start again. Back in February when we had that lovely weather  I potted up lots of plants from the runners of the old strawberries which were rooting themselves all over the plot. I had a good clean up, getting rid of the weak ones and selecting the healthy looking ones. 

I also tidied up the strawberries in the bath, getting rid of the dead leaves which looked such a mess. 

All the new potted up strawberries have been in the greenhouse for a few weeks now and are looking really good. This week I moved them to the cold frame. Soon they will be ready for planting in their big containers.

Remembering a few years ago when I couldn't pick the fruit fast enough and I made lots of strawberry jam, I'm hoping for a better strawberry harvest this summer.