Do you straw your strawberries?

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Do you straw your strawberries?
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Treacodactyl
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Tue Mar 01, 05 11:16 am Post subject: Do you straw your strawberries?

I'm creating a new bed for our strawberries this year and need to ensure they are spaced a reasonable distance apart in rows, so I can keep the middle pest free. Our old strawberry bed was more of a group than a row and we found that mice, slugs and snails tended to have a good life living in them. Last year we lost quite a few fruits.

Although placing straw under the plants keeps the fruits clean I find it also provides a good home for slugs and snails. We don't use poison and our hens are not much use as they love the strawberries. Anyone use anything else or have any good tips?

We may also buy a few extra plants, so does anyone have a favourite?

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Tue Mar 01, 05 11:49 am Post subject: Re: Do you straw your strawberries?

Have you considered a strawberry tower?

In the past I've had success with aklpine strawberries, which are small but exquisitely flavoured. This year I'm starting our with Cambridge Favourite and Cambridge Vigour, and I'm planning on having them in a border around my herb patch in the garden. I normally find that putting plants that are susceptible to slug attack in and around the herb patch reduces the problem a little, and baiting the other end of the patch with beer traps does a lot to help too.

Treacodactyl
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Tue Mar 01, 05 12:04 pm Post subject:
I have used the clay pots, but find they dry out too much. We're after a large crop for jam making this year and I'm not sure if a tower would give us enough. We may try beer traps this year, although I can just seen the hens saying 'mmmmm, strawberries, slugs and ...Beer! '

moggins

Joined: 24 Feb 2005
Posts: 942
Location: Gloucester

Posted: Tue Mar 01, 05 12:07 pm Post subject:
LOL, a proverbial hen feast I'm growing mine above the ground this year, we have a huge slug problem normally but a hedgehog has taken a liking to my garden so I'm hoping he might stay.

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Tue Mar 01, 05 12:16 pm Post subject:
I use clay pots and they are a bit of a pain, I use them for herbs now. I haven't used straw in the past but I am this year,

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Tue Mar 01, 05 12:18 pm Post subject:

Jonnyboy wrote:

I use clay pots and they are a bit of a pain, I use them for herbs now.

So do we, thymes love 'em.

Sarah D

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 2584

Posted: Tue Mar 01, 05 1:06 pm Post subject:
I use straw to keep the fruits off the soil and jkeep them clean. Anything, be it straw, mats, polythene, will attract a certain amount of slugs if you ahve them in your garden. Just put in a few extra plants to compensate for the potential losses.

*Fluffykitten*

Joined: 03 Dec 2004
Posts: 74
Location: Merthyr Tydfil

Posted: Tue Mar 01, 05 2:19 pm Post subject:

We've been given some Cambridge Favorite plants which im keeping alive in pot for now until we hear about an allottment. In a book i got from the library (cant remember what it was called

) Henrietta the author said to use wood / bark chippings with a fine covering of straw to keep slugs to a minimum. Dont quite see how that would work though as welsh slugs are quite cunning

and im sure they would creep across the straw without huring themselves on the chips. Couldnt you lay some of that copper tape around the outskirts of the strawberry patch?

Clair XX

moggins

Joined: 24 Feb 2005
Posts: 942
Location: Gloucester

Posted: Tue Mar 01, 05 3:19 pm Post subject:
You could also try putting broken egg shells around the plants?

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Tue Mar 01, 05 8:27 pm Post subject:
Copper pipe is probably cheaper (and reuseable) for around the strawberry patch - or you could use guttering and have a moat. This year I am going on the offensive with slugs. Beer traps, bran, copper tape, citrus peel, plastic cloches with vaseline and velcro, and nemaslug. And night time slug hunts. And maybe copper pipe (can't have a moat cos we're on a slope - unless we move, of course!

*Fluffykitten*

Joined: 03 Dec 2004
Posts: 74
Location: Merthyr Tydfil

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 05 8:51 am Post subject:
Good Grief WW methinks you have big slug issues!! Talk about belt and braces Feel almost sorry for the little critters - doubt i'll be saying that in a few months when theyve munched through half my veggies!!

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 05 9:40 am Post subject:

*Fluffykitten* wrote:

Feel almost sorry for the little critters

Never, ever feel sorry for slugs

If you have room in your heart to feel sorry for them, then you don't have a slug problem. When you really have a slug problem, they take over your every waking moment, you pace the garden at night in all weather, torch in one hand and bucket of salt water in the other, looking for the little *******s, you plot ever more violent methods of slug death.
No, don't feel sorry for slugs.
Oooh. That feels better.

Judith (who no longer has a garden with a real slug problem, and is almost normal again)

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 05 9:46 am Post subject:
Errm, if you have a slug problem THAT bad, is it not arguable that it's better to resort to a chemical means of control till you have the situation under control?

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 05 9:58 am Post subject:

Cab wrote:

Errm, if you have a slug problem THAT bad, is it not arguable that it's better to resort to a chemical means of control till you have the situation under control?

My neighbour would scatter so many pellets on the ground that it practically turned blue, but if it was a damp spring, she would still lose her delphiniums. When you have a damp, shady garden, surrounded by dry stone walls and a with a patch of woodland on one side, any method is limited in its effect - the new battalions just come in to take over from the ones you kill.
Instead you learn to protect the very young seedlings (using chemical means if necessary - I'm not that much of a purist), grow more resistant plants and every now and again go on a murderous rampage just to make you feel better!

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 05 10:03 am Post subject:

Judith, in a garden like that you're right, you can't win by chemical means

My own garden at home is smaller, walled on three sides, bordering on a fourth by the shed and a fence leading to the neighbours garden. We get more snails than slugs. In the first year tending this garden I did use a slug poison (a pet-safe one), but since then I've rarely had need to take such steps. But it's so radically different to your garden!

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