Summer strawberry success

Strawberries are a summer fruit fave the whole family can enjoy and can be grown in garden beds, pots, containers and hanging baskets.

Follow our tips to get the most from your strawberries this summer!

POSITION

• Make sure your strawberries enjoy the summer sun so they are nice and sweet. Lack of sun will mean little or no flavour for your berries.
• Borage, onion and marigold are all good companions for strawberries. They repel insects and some other pests, along with providing colour and food for bees.

cARE

• Feed your strawberries and they will feed you. Replenishing nutrients used by your strawberries ensures they will grow to their full potential. For strawberries planted in garden beds feed with Tui Strawberry Food every four weeks during key growth periods of spring and summer.
• Feed strawberries planted in pots in containers with a controlled release fertiliser such as Tui Enrich Fruit, Citrus, Tree & Shrub.
• Keep your strawberries well watered. Well watered, well nourished strawberries will have a better chance of keeping insect pests and diseases at bay. Regular applications of Tui Organic Seaweed Plant Tonic will also keep your strawberries healthy and help them cope with summer heat.

PROTECT

• Birds love juicy strawberries, make sure you put up netting to protect yours once they start fruiting.
• Protect your plants from the elements with layers of Tui Strawberry Straw, to help keep their roots moist in the warmer months, keep fruit off the soil and to help keep your strawberry patch weed free.

common issues

• If your strawberries are drying up before they mature possible causes include poor pollination, drying out between watering and inconsistent watering. Mulch to help conserve soil moisture and feed regularly with Tui Strawberry Food, which contains potassium to help flowering and fruiting.
• Water consistently, especially over the summer months as the fruit forms and when heat can cause stress.
• Remove any deformed or eaten fruit off the plant.
• Brown spots on strawberry leaves is common. In most cases it doesn’t affect the fruit. Simply remove the badly affected leaves and discard them.

Free plants!

Planting out the runners of your strawberry plants is a great way to get more strawberry plants for free. If you leave your existing strawberry plants to fruit for another season, fruit size will be reduced, therefore you will get a more abundant crop next season if you plant out the runners.

Runners form from the parent plant on a long stem, new plants grow at the end of these runners. Select the new plant you want to plant out and cut the runner, leaving it a few centimetres long.

Then plant the new plant directly into the garden with Tui Strawberry Mix.

Strawberry varieties are either short-day or day-neutral. Short-day varieties like Camarosa, Chandler and Pajaro produce flower buds when the days are short providing an early spring crop. They are best planted in mid-winter. Day-neutral varieties including San Andreas, Aromas and Temptation flower throughout spring and summer and therefore can be planted later than short-day varieties.

Tui Product Pick 

Tui Strawberry Food is a balanced blend of nutrients designed to encourage  fast establishment and growth of strawberry plants. Tui Strawberry Food makes plants stronger and more disease resistant, while increasing fruiting potential for large, succulent strawberries. Also suitable for other berry varieties.