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pakalolo_gw

Strawberry time

pakalolo
11 years ago

Hi everyone,

Last year we tried to grow strawberries and didn't have too much luck. We put in about 30 plants and had about 30 strawberries. In the spring I followed the conventional wisdom that says to grow strawberries in FL as annuals and tore up all the plants except a couple that were pretty big.

Soon those plants started making runners. LOTS of runners! Back in September when I was tilling up my beds for this winter's garden I couldn't bring myself to just kill them. I transplanted about 20 daughter plants to small nursery pots and put them in the shade. We continued to water them while we solarized our beds and about 10 days ago we planted them back into the garden in nice rows.

I am impressed -- the plants were not in great shape after coming out of the bed but since being put into the garden, each with a drip irrigation emitter, they are really perking up and making new growth. I have been cutting runners on the few that have been trying to make runners. We'll see how they fare. I figure I'm doing my own form of genetic selection by keeping the strongest couple of plants as the mother-plants and selecting the best looking daughter plants.

What's everyone else doing? I love strawberries and thought it would be easy to have big, beautiful berries. Boy was I wrong! I think the biggest thing was we didn't have consistent watering, hence the micro-irrigation setup this year. Now that it's all set up I can't believe I didn't do it last year. So nice to just go out and turn on the hose for an hour and it's done, nice and neat, right to the plant.

Warmly,

Mark

Comments (6)

  • garyfla_gw
    11 years ago

    Hi
    i actually had a few survive the summer though i grow them in strawberry pots to get them out of full sun during summer Surprised at the variety "Ozark beauty" never recommended for florida but hey they're alive.
    Isn't it frustrating that florida is second in the world for strawberry production yet two pints has been the peak of my production lol Do you have any fruit yet ?? Mine has a couple of flowers gary

  • dirtycoconuts
    11 years ago

    Hey man. Can you post a pic of your irrigation setup?

    I would love berries but I am relegated to containers only and I never have had luck with getting good growth in containers

  • pakalolo
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Here's a shot of what I'm doing with peppers. It's half-inch poly for the main lines and then quarter-inch to the emitters for each plant. I'm using half gallon per hour emitters. I'm also using some mini-sprinklers for another bed that's all from seed. They are 18 GPH and they spray 180 degrees, one on each long-side of that other box.

    Hope this helps. There's a lot of resources online. I didn't buy a kit, I cobbled it all together from an irrigation supply place, Lowes and Home Depot. I could have done better if I'd been more prepared when I went to the irrigation place.

    Mark

  • TampaBull
    11 years ago

    Anyone have a good place to buy strawberry plants?
    I've checked several places (box store, local nursery) but no luck. Might check Parksdale Farms over the weekend.

    I live in Brandon (Tampa)

  • derbyka
    11 years ago

    I got my strawberries from Parksdale, but I think they might be out now. They were I think around $7 for 25 bare root plants when I got them in October. I was wary of doing strawberries but after seeing others in my community garden having great success (getting at least a pint/day), I am trying them this year. I only lost 1 out of 125 bareroot plants when putting them in. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to do any kind of drip irrigation so I have to do overhead watering.

  • zzackey
    11 years ago

    I grow mine in window boxes. I ate them all right off the plant outside, so I have no idea about how many I got off of them. I got mine from the Master Gardeners of Baker County, Fl in Oct. They were 10 plants for 5 bucks. There were 14 in my bag. I got hooked and bought 10 more this year. They have their first flower already! I only had a few runners from last years crop, because they dried out a few times because I forgot they weren't getting rain water because I had them under a table so they would get some shade in the summer heat.

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