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In the Veggie Patch: It’s time to plant strawberries

It is remarkable how the taste of home-grown strawberries is so much sweeter than the ones from the supermarket.

Delicious sweet strawberries grow well in pots, vegetable gardens and ornamental garden beds.

 

 

 

Tips & Tricks

We think the best way to grow strawberries is a 500mm high water-tank garden bed. This helps avoid slugs and snails.

Plant your strawberries while there is still plenty of warmth in the sun. They need good sunshine, good quality potting mix that drains freely (place your pot on pot feet), and regular feeding.

Choose a few varieties to extend the harvest season.

Give them at least six hours sun a day to fruit well.

Mulch to help keep the area free of weeds and to lock in the moisture.

Once your plants are flowering, water with liquid applications of Thrive Flower & Fruit. Never allow your pot to dry out.

Remove runners as they develop and replant them for next season.

 

Varieties

Red Gauntlet

This old Scottish variety does best in cool gardens. Good disease resistance and heavy cropping have made it popular for commercial growers

 

There's nothing like homegrown strawberries. 'Red Gauntlet' is also popular with grand-kids!

 

Strawberry ‘Melba’

A new, Australian bred variety that has consistent, large fruits. They look good and taste even better. They have a good fragrance too. It is a day neutral variety that means it just keeps on producing. The fruit even holds up well in rain. This variety is day neutral which means it fruits throughout the year (whenever the temperate is between 20-30C). Plant growth is concentrated on fruit rather than runner production.

 


Strawberry ‘Melba’
 

Strawberry ‘Adina’

Good for warm gardens, another Australian variety that produces delicious, large, juicy fruits with a sweet fragrance. Plenty of bright red, cone shaped fruits. The fruit is low acid and successful across a range of climates, cool to sub-tropical because it has a low chilling requirement with good resistance to powdery mildew.

 


Strawberry ‘Adina’

 

Strawberry ‘Tioga’

A vigorous grower with tasty, bright red fruit. ‘Tioga’ produces good yields of very sweet, medium sized strawberries. The plants are best suited in cool to temperate climates of Australia.

 


Strawberry ‘Tioga’

Strawberries are available online from Tesselaar, www.tesselaar.net.au/