Howdy,
Welcome to my Dubai based container vegetable gardening blog.
Welcome to my Dubai based container vegetable gardening blog.
I have just recently planted my first ever strawberry plants. Mrs. Bubba & I were in the supermarket the other day and she spotted some strawberries but decided against them in the end as we have been disappointed in the past with the sweetness or ripeness of them .... not to mention the price of them! So, I was passing through Satwa a couple of weeks back and checked out the plant shops to see what they have in the way of vegetable plants ... no I was not looking for pepper plants! I came across some strawberry plants, i believe, grown by a large local farm produce company as it was in a box with their name on it. So, I bought three of them.
They had flowers on them. I had just recently posted the blog about Pinching Peppers so I decided to pinch off the flowers from them as well .... giving them a chance to establish a root system and perhaps a bigger more robust plant. From the videos I watched on You Tube they all say that they like to be planted together with other strawberry plants ... not on their own in their own pot as I was going to do. So I plant the three together in a normal size pot (12-14" tall & 10-12" across the top).
FYI - if you click on any picture you will get a larger version to look at.
FYI - if you click on any picture you will get a larger version to look at.
Then I was back in the Satwa area again last week and picked up four more plants for a larger pot not in use. Again they had flowers and now even fruit starting. So, I decided to plant them as they were ..... flowers, fruit and whatever the condition the plant was in.
But in the videos they all pretty much recommend that I should pinch of any flowers or fruits. I am going to leave two plants with their flowers & fruit as I am interested in seeing the difference, if any. I will keep them together so they will get the same amount of light. At the moment they are in shade next to a white wall so they get a bit of reflexed sunlight. Again in the videos they recommend full sunlight .... where they live .... but as it is not too hot now it should be ok. I will place the first pot in the sun today and give the second pot a few more days in the shade and then place it in the sun as well. So, more on them later.
Here are a couple of videos about planting strawberries.
The lady in the video is worried about slugs & snails and not birds ..... she must not have a couple of families of Bulbuls living next door!!!
It seems these ladies were not worried about harming the roots of the plants! I was always told that if you damage the root hairs of a plant it will not survive .... humm? I just planted mine as they came out of the pot .... hope the roots spread out!
Has anybody else planted strawberries that would like to share their experience with others? I am wondering if I put them in shade this summer and keep them watered if they will survive .... maybe not since the water temperature coming out of the city supply is 40C!!!!
Thanks for stopping by and as always any comments or suggestions are most welcome in the comment box below .... maybe it will help someone else!
Thanks!
Bubba
This is amazing! I thought I was the only one with strawberry plants in this country!
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, I grew my strawberries by seed, I bought some driscoll's strawberry from a supermarket, pinched the seeds off them, put them in the freezer for 2 weeks, and planted them. now i have 3 cute strawberry plantings in one pot! I didnt think freezing strawberry seeds was actually going to work but it did after all ;)
currently, they are doing great, I was surprised to see them survive the heat wave we had 3 weeks ago without wilting! I guess strawberries arent as heat sensitive as they look, I wonder if they'll be able to survive the upcoming summer? if I see signs of distress I'll keep my strawberries indoors.
Im excited to hear about your strawberries :)! How well are they doing now?
Hi Garudamon11,
DeleteI am gald to hear that your strawberries are doing well. Unfortunately, mine did not fair as well. They made fruit but I believe I planted them incorrectly. As a typicial guy, I first do it and when it doesn't seem right THEN I read the instructions. I understand now that the crown of the plant(where the roots and vegetation meet) should not get too wet. But, the way I planted them in the pot the crowns would get soaked each time I water them ... so they eventually died. But, what fruit they did make where SWEET! Perhaps next year I will make a mound in the pot and plant them at the top of the mound and then the water should not reach the crown or buy one of those pots that have several holes in their sides in which the strawberry plant is planted with the crown sticking out and the water is applied from the top of the pot and the water just goes to the roots only. Thanks for sharing your tip about frezzing the seeds before planting and experiences with your strawberries. Hope you let us know if they made it through the summer.
Ow thats a pity... you probably covered the crown in soil which made it rot, I take extra care when watering my strawberries so that the soil is just damp and not soggy, I water my plants when the top layer of soil dries out, so they dont get over-watered.
ReplyDeleteI hope you're planning to get another strawberry plant, they're not something to give up on ;) and btw you dont really need to buy more than one plant since strawberry reproduces asexually by runners and by branch crowns, you should ask the seller though about the variety, some varieties are bred to not produce runners.
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ReplyDeleteI might check in the market to see if there are any strawberries plants around still otherwise I was planning to try it again next year. As far as asking the seller about varieties ... it might turn out to be a similiar experience as my search for bell pepper plants in the market. Look in "Archive by Topic" and click on "Chili Peppers" and you can read about my saga.
DeleteThanks for the comments and tips!
dxbcharles