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Greenhouse Bean Feast Part 4 Strawberries |
| Date Added: June 10, 2009 06:54:22 AM |
| Author: Jean Vernon 1 |
| Category: |
| Everyone loves the smell and the taste of strawberries. But when a small bowlful can cost the earth, isn’t it time you grew your own? The flavour of these home-grown fruit far outweighs anything you can buy in the supermarket and even if you only pick a handful of fruit for the first year, you can be sure they’ll be the nicest one’s you’ve ever eaten. Strawberries are one of the easiest crops to grow, great for children to grow in their own garden patch and they are very rewarding. You don’t need a greenhouse to grow them, but if you have a greenhouse you can get a much earlier crop when the fruit is at its most expensive. Grow If you haven’t grown strawberries before it is not too late to start now. You can buy cold stored strawberry runners from a specialist supplier or pot grown plants from the garden centre that are ready for planting now. Order your cold stored runners from a reputable supplier and plant them into strawberry planters or into the garden as soon as possible for a small crop this summer. If you keep the planter inside the greenhouse until after fruiting, then as long as the bees can access the plants to ensure pollination, you should be harvesting your first fruits a week or so earlier than you would from any plants growing outside. Providing that you look after your plants, feed them while flowering with a high potash feed and use a general feed after fruiting, they should yield a small crop in their first year. If the plants are weak or there is a delay in planting them out then it is better to remove all the flowers completely and make them direct all their energy into establishing a healthy root system rather than fruit. It’s a tough thing to do but your reward is that next year your strawberry crop will be bigger and better. If you want the ultimate, delicious strawberries then choose to grow them organically. You can do this by growing them in an organic planter. Feed with an organic feed and deal with pests and diseases without the use of chemicals. Think how much organic strawberries would cost to buy in the shops? Plus you are saving all those food miles too; it’s a win, win situation. Feast If you can resist eating the fruit while you are out in the garden, then experiment with them in the kitchen. A bowlful is easy to serve with cream, ice cream or a splash of caster sugar. Be sure to serve them at room temperature for their full aroma and flavour. For something a bit different, serve them with chopped basil. Or be daring and splash with some quality balsamic vinegar. Divine. If there are only a few fruits to start with don’t waste them: A handful of ripe strawberries are a fabulous addition, sliced and added to fresh garden salad, a bowl of porridge or as a fruity topping to your morning cereal. Aftercare Remove the runners that appear after fruiting, as these will weaken your plants. If you want to propagate your plants then pick one strong plant each season and allow this to form runners that you can pot up and grow on to extend your strawberry patch. When fruiting has finished in late summer, weed around the plants thoroughly. Using sharp, clean secateurs remove all the old leaves, taking care not to damage the crown. Feed with a general, balanced fertiliser and keep the plants well watered. To Know more about Greenhouses and Greenhouse Bean Feast visit: www.hartley-botanic.co.uk |
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