Should You Pick Off Flowers on Newly Planted Strawberries?
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- Опубліковано 8 чер 2021
- To pick or not to pick, that is the question. It is so commonly discussed I figured I would make an episode as to if you should pull off your strawberry flowers the first year.
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Luke: "There's no way to really fail at gardening."
Me: "Hold my beer."
🤣🤣🤣
*message*Even if every plant in your garden dies, you succeeded in gardening, because you gardened at all.*message*
😂😅
I've been gardening for approximately 30 years and have never, ever bothered to pinch off strawberry flowers and have never, ever had strawberry plants suffer. In fact, I can't kill a strawberry plant if I tried, even the suckers that I pull out and toss into a basket to die just won't. Of course, like you, I believe soil is everything. Healthy soil = healthy ecosystem = healthy plant = healthy food = healthy me.
You should move to my house so you can see my thriving hobby of killing all strawberry starts!
@@melissasullivan1658 I've left my yanked out runner's in a basket with expose roots all winter and they still grow in the spring. Same goes for rhubarb root, gauc and a few other things.
Soil really is everything. I took a gardening class and the instructor always said, "put a $1 plant into a $5 hole.
Last year, I bought what turned out to be 27 bare root Ozark Beauty. I'm a lazy gardener. I have drip line irrigation on a timer. I left the flowers on. I had some strawberries all summer. They somehow multiplied like 300% and this year I have already harvested gallons and they are coming into their second flush. At this point, I'm trying to find people who want plants and I'm gifting my favorite people with berries, while keeping lots for me!
Thank you! I'm so tired of hearing how we did it wrong, no matter what we have explained to others. We did an experiment when we got our strawberries. We ordered 3 different berries: Sequoia (June bearing), Tristar (Day neutral), and Ozark Beauty (Ever bearing). The left side of each bed had the flowers pinched off. The right side was allowed to flower. We got some berries from each variety that first year that we did not pinch off. The Tristar (Day Neutral) produced the most and biggest. The second year, we allowed both sides to flower. We could not tell a difference between the average size or the amount produced on either side. We will never pinch again. The beds are expected to do well the first three years, so why obliterate any fruit that first year since we saw no difference. It may be an issue for some in certain areas, but for us, there was no benefit to pinch off the blooms. They produce just as many runners on each side of the bed, so no benefit of doing that for extra runners, either.
Thank you for sharing your experiment. I never pinch and kept hearing you need to pinch. I just got Tristar this year glad to hear it was good producer for you.
I mean if they are really smal… I had a bare root that LITERALLY THE FIRST THING THAT SPRUNG UP WAS A FLOWER! I pinched it off… no more until July
You’re the first person I’ve heard say they leave them on. Even the packaging for mine this year said remove them. Glad I left them on. Already enjoying fruit!
I am pretty sure this is the best gardening channel on youtube.
First time gardening, so I'll do what this expert does and leave them on! 🍓
He is so good(:
First year strawberries taste AMAZING!!!
I leave my flowers to fruit.
I've had a very large patch for 15+ years ...I do feed with fish emulsion a couple times a year, spring, summer and fall..
Never have had a problem my plants are about 16 to 18 inches tall..and produce huge amounts of fruit.
Strawberries are in my opinion one of the easiest to grow
It's very easy to replenish a bed without having to take it out and replant. I've tried mowing it to the ground after my June harvest, but my bed needed even more than that to thin it sufficiently to just the new growth. So each fall, I place several inches of compost over the top of the bed (or a thick layer of leaves and then compost over the top of that). It must be thick so you can see no plants at all. It looks like I've completely smothered everything. In the spring, I often wonder if I've killed them all. But in time, the new and young plants will eventually come up. The bed will naturally have thinned itself out to the young and vigorous plants, plus I've amended the soil at the same time. The bed is naturally mulched from the compost so it retains moisture even better. It's fantastic and I get bumper crops. I learned to do it from Paul Gautchi who buries his bed with woodchips each fall. It's amazing and simple.
I just plant the strawberrys the rest is up to the plants if they wanna flower or not
I only keep plants in my garden that can survive in my garden any veriety that died gets a second chance and if they die a second time I just try other verietys
Facts
There's no wrong way to do it, I've discovered. However, last year I did pluck all the blooms off, and this year I am drowning in strawberries. I've made so much jam, it's amazing! 🍓
Glad someone actually tried and had success, seems everyone in the comments just agrees with MI and never says otherwise
@@Jckuz1man mmmmmmmmmm...........jaaaaaaaaaaam :-)
I will now never pull off the flowers. I've tried to grow strawberries for about ten years and never got more than a couple of hand fulls from an area about twice the size of yours. I could hardly see the point in putting all this effort and get enough for a fruit salad. (to badly misquote Forest Gump) Your other videos have helped me tremendously! Every other crop is doing better than ever before thanks in a large part to the advice you give on your channel! I live in Maine at a similar climate to yours. I would love to see you do more videos on strawberries. In particular, how to plant daughter plants late in the season. Thanks Luke!
Mine never flowered but then went from 4 plants to filling a 3'x5' bed. And this year we got 5.8 lbs of berries. Most went into jams.
I let nature decide in most cases....whenever I did otherwise it was a disaster... 😅
I stand by the same thing. I do intuitive gardening. I don’t rotate my plants, I don’t dig, I don’t spary, no fertilisers, and I have beautiful healthy crops. I don’t plan my garden. I look at an empty space and I fill it whatever seedlings I have 😁
@@johannakispal3614 Johanna are you Hungarian, you have a very Hungarian name:), my mother language is Hungarian! You and me both love to just go with the flow when it comes to planting!
😹 i hear ya! Less is more sometimes
@@johannakispal3614 a true Ruth Stout kind of gardener 👍 ❤
@@PlantsAmore yeees I’m Hungarian 😜
I came here for this exact advise. I’m gonna leave mine on! Thank you!!
I picked off the flowers for my in ground strawberries last year. This year I have strawberries in pots and I didn't pick the flowers because I know the soil is good and I can baby them better. I'm having a blast with pots this year and more success. Thanks for all of your help Luke 💕
I planted a new strawberry raised bed this year and was wondering about this issue. I left the flowers on too! Glad to see this video... made me worry free 😀. I’m enjoying your videos Luke and am from the great state of Michigan too. Actually very close to you. Keep the videos coming!
A great way to help bare root plants (strawberries, asparagus, bare root trees, etc.) get established is to use rooting hormone on the roots when you're planting them in the soil. Then add that rooting hormone to the water you use on the plants for the first few weeks. This will help the root system develop much quicker and lessen stress.
Great suggestions!
@WinsomeWinslet Is Organic Rev good for this?
Ihave several plants growing out of old tires. Going to make a nice strawberry bed like yours.
Lol. I'm actually considering planting some in tires. Any suggestions?
@@AdaraAhavaThey should do just fine. I want to expand the patch. I was a little concerned about contamination from the rubber. But evidently they break down so slowly it is a non-issue and one of the reasons there are special collection sites for tires since they degrade so slowly. Good luck with it.
I walked by this persons house and they were growing strawberries 🍓 out of a kids baby swimming pool. Great idea
I planted bare root strawberry's this year. An ever bearing variety. The package recommended taking off the first flowers to help the plants established themselves. So for about a month I picked off the flowers for about a month and then left them alone. The plants look healthy and they are putting off runners and fruit now.
I can’t get bareroot to thrive to save my life. 😭
@@melissasullivan1658 I got ten of them from Menards. I lost two of them, but it was my first time planting them, and they had already come out of dormancy in the package. Its much better than starting them from seed. I got three plants from 18 double sown cells. Thats why I got the bare root ones.
@@melissasullivan1658 I would strongly recommend trying Nourse farms for online ordering. Very nice strawberry plants every time I've ordered from them- bare root but super healthy. I ordered some a few yrs ago in early July despite their customer service recommending against it and still got 6# that year and another 20# the following spring!
Nice late night video. First bed of strawberries put in this year. I've been pinching off the underdeveloped strawberries but not the good ones. They're SO GOOD. Both varieties we have are ever bearing.
Depends on my mood. Standard rule of thumb: Roots before froots 😁
Great analogy
Interesting fact, "rule of thumb" refers to back in the day when men could legally beat their wives with a stick as long as it was no wider than their thumb
@@lisawhite8718 ... ok
@@lisawhite8718 in other words, never - ever use that phrase, and I for one won't.
@@EvelynM-vlogs I think a lot of people think it's a gardening term. So common in gardening videos actually.
I planted 25 bare root sparkle strawberries in April and I have had a beautiful harvest of strawberries over the last couple of weeks.
Just found lovely red berries all over my new strawberry plants. Never even saw the flowers. Not a problem for me, we ate them ..Yummy!
Excellent video as always sir! This makes me feel better about looking forward to eating my strawberries this year.
Got my first 4 Strawberry plants this spring. 3 of the 4 of them had flowers on them when I bought them. The flowers grew into strawberries and I was able to harvest them. One of the plants is still producing flowers and Strawberries. All 4 of them were supposed to be the "All Star" variety. Also I let the runners go and I now have more then tripled the number of plants I started with.
Up to this video I have never heard or read about picking off the flowers the first year. Here ( Germany) they suggest to plantnt newly bought plants or the runner of the old plants best in August so that they can establish a nice root system. Otherwise you can buy plants in spring and plant them then. No problem too. Important in spring planting is that the heart of the plants is not buried because there are the future flowers. In autumn the old leaves are cut off. The plants should be renewed after three years as they don't have many berries after that. New plants should go into a new bed too.
This is exactly the video I was looking for. Thank You!
I planted 3 plants I got from a local producer 3 years ago. I’ve never cut the flowers. The first year they put out 2-3 flowers. They concentrated on rooting the second year the concentration putting out runners to fill the beds and there were a dozen or so flowers. This year there’s a plethora of blossoms.
Thanks for the clarity! This is my first year growing strawberries (ozark beauties) and wasn’t sure what to do! Keep getting mixed answers. I guess I’m leaving the flowers on!
I just planted my strawberry bed this year and was wondering what to do about the flowers. As always thank you for the great information.
I just planted strawberries this year in a gutter system. I got the Honeoye plants and haven't picked off the flowers...I just let them do their thing. I've gotten about 15 or so little strawberries so far, and they were absolutely worth it! They're the little but mighty tasty strawberry!
I have done it both ways in the last 5 years and i also have not seen a negative to leaving the flowers on. There are usually very few flowers the first year and generally very small, but still a nice garden snack. Ive decided that ill just let the runner babies do what they would naturally do and enjoy what it gives.
I leave the flowers on. Nature knows best in most cases. 😊
I am in zone 5b, growing 'Everbearing' strawberries in containers. I have just left mine alone to do their thing, and they are thriving. Just picked a bunch yesterday.
Thank you for this video, the timing was perfect.
Terrific! Thank you, and like you, I will keep the flowers on! I fertilized the soil/compost with I tbls organic fish bone meal.
This video is such perfect timing I literally just planted strawberries
This is my first year growing strawberries. I planted a dozen starters in a Birdies Raised Bed, which I filled mostly from a free source of local compost & mixed it with other bagged raised bed soil and Peat moss. Keeping the soil consistently moist is a challenge. I noticed water doesn't soak down so well. It's like mixing flour and water. Scrape the surface, and there's bone-dry soil. Uhg. I had to keep stirring to soil to get a consistent mix. What a workout! Geez. Anyhow, aside from being concerned about the soil becoming bone-dry again, I transplanted everbearing strawberries from starters, only after their roots started creeping out the bottoms of the small pots. After being in ground for a week, so far, so good. The berries that were on have withered. More flowers and new leaf growth have emerged. I'm watering every day or two...I am still concerned about the soil, though. Time will tell.
yes, perfect timing, ty🕯️👨🏼🌾
Good to know. Thanks Susie
Very informative Luke!
First year, doing beautiful in containers, and i am leaving on the flowers.
i planted my strawberries 🍓 from store bought Bonnie starts. i picked the flowers of them off from March to June so they could focus on rooting. so From March to June iI pick them. After June i pick Strawberries 🍓 as soon as they are ripening, Next year ill let them produce freely and get larger and more ripe.
I bought 20 bare-root strawberry plants last year. I read the instructions that came with them and learned that I should pluck the flowers to give the plants their best start. But I could not bear the idea of having NO harvest until the next year. So I compromised. I plucked the flowers off the smallest plants that looked rather puny, and I thinned the flowers on the larger plants down to 3. Some of the smaller plants did not make any flowers. The result was good. I got a small harvest that first year, and it didn't seem to affect this year's harvest, which yielded 10 to 15 berries per plant.
have had a big patch for 4-5 years and have never picked the flowers. i just wait until i can
tell the fruit would be really small and cut that off. seems to work great, keeps pollinators happy, new plants never are stressed 1st year
and even get surprise fruit off young ones randomly.
I like your bluntness. Keep it up mate 👍😀
FYI, Ozark Beauties are an everbearing variety. A mix like you have would be great…I need more room.
Luke said there is "an" endearing variety, but there are many. I'm growing Ozark Beauty and Ft. Laramie.
Thanks for this. I've been picking mine (I allowed a few strawberries to grow already since I missed them). I will stop picking the flowers for the rest of the summer.
Incredible knowledge ! 🍅🍅🍅
I'm a leave the flowers on my strawberry plants🍓 👩🌾 🌱🤗 ❤
I have some strawberry plants that I bought bareroot-in-a-bag from those bins at [big box home improvement], and I’m picking the flowers off of them this year because I know they’ve had a rough start with me as their plant mom. 😅
But we’ve been enjoying berries from the 6 Honeoye that I bought as good looking, healthy plants at a garden center this spring. I feel much more confident that they had all the things they needed to get a good head start in life
Luke I have 1yr strawberries that I grew from bare roots. This is my first year with strawberries. My plan is to let them do their thing. I have already started harvesting strawberries 🍓 😋
I bought dormant plants they are in good soil, have great.roots and are full of healthy leaves and flowers. I'm letting them fruit and they will be just fine.
Thank you!!!
My everbearing looked a bit rough...so I pinched off the flowers for about 3 weeks. Looking much healthier now.
We leave them on! 😊
The strawberry plants we started from seed last summer have been in the patch since september and only a handful of them made flowers so far. They all made lots of runners which we removed, since we're growing strawberries from seed for the diversity and not to clone the plants just yet. One of the plants from seed is currently putting out trusses from every crown, and it's doing very well. It's interesting to see all the genetic differences of all the different strawberry plants from seed, a lot more interesting than having thousands of clone plants making it very susceptible to total patch collapse, so we grow from seed to guard against that~
I actually don't touch the flowers. I trim back the lower leaves to make the plants focus on producing fruit to harvest.
Nursery I got my bareroot plants from told me to pick off the flowers, so I did. The soil I put them in is native clay loam...not ideal I know. But I keep ferilizing them every 7-10 days and the plants seem to be thriving, getting taller, bushier with bigger leaves and such.
Very informative video!!! Have you yet created a video regarding herbicide poisoning? A friend of mine believes she ruined her garden with bad compost. 🤭I noticed that not many people know about this yet and I think it’d be beneficial to go over things like “symptoms to look out for” and “ways to treat poisoned soil”.
Btw, I’m “friend”. 🙋🏻♀️😂
Have mine in hydroponics.
Noticed no differences in root development from the plants unprunes to the ones I picked the flowers off from.
Besides the flowers make a beautiful visual by my window.
Always appreciate you sharing knowledge...
I live in Michigan and I think about wandering towards Lapeer to. Check out your shop
Tha ks brother
Agreed, if the roots are reasonably healthy and vigorous, just let the plants do what they're meant to do. It seems like all these commercial varieties are ready to rock if they're given a nice spot with healthy soil. The breeders knew what they were doing. 🙂
I read that often commercial growers start bare roots/runners in the fall to be sure they have a healthy root system by spring, so that's something to consider. If you're thinking about putting more strawbs in, it's probably best to do it in autumn as long as there's a little time for roots to grow before it goes dormant, like garlic. But I agree that even when they're planted in spring, it's just not worth it to pinch every flower. I generally keep an eye on them and might thin them some if they're looking crowded or scraggly, but I'm not all that vigilant about it.
Just to add on to the reasons Luke explained why picking the flowers is not necessary: in nature, a strawberry plant does not prune its flowers (unless a bud-loving animal [deer, rabbit, etc.] does this). Logic dictates that when a runner sets out for a new plant system, the roots have not (nor will be) established for some time, and in nature it will be connected to the mother plant via the runner until the offspring plant has an established root system. The runner plant sets out flowers on the first year are most likely to benefit the mother plant in reproducing, since every strawberry is essentially a seed-bearing source. The end goal for the plant is to spread as many seeds as possible (and by any means necessary). In our “gardening” world, we typically don’t put ourselves in the “thought process” of the plant we are trying to grow. Essentially, one could pick the flowers, or not, depending on what one feels is best. Just some ‘food for thought’. 😊👍 Great Video Luke!
I'm growing Fragaria Vesca, I did pick the flowers for six months then said "screw it" and let them be. Don't really know if it helped or not but the are fruiting ALL YEAR LONG !! They never stop, I guess it is the type of strawberry, anyway I'm loving it.
First year strawberries taste AMAZING!!!
I planted strawberries about 3 years ago. I get strawberries every season and I never pull my flowers. They grow just fine. “ I have never heard of picking the flowers.” I just let nature do it’s work. 😃🍓
I picked off my flowers from the strawberries I planted last year. My dad always did so I did. The bed is completely filled with plants this year. Lots of berries and lots and lots of leaves. After they are done producing I am going to thin out and plant in rows. The problem I am having because of the rain, is molding because the sun can't get to plant because of the number of leaves. Can I prune some of the leaves like I do my zucchini?
wait til 75% of the leaf is no longer viable cause the green parts can still photo synthesize ! I have noticed that the set of three leaves tend to spoil or dry uniformly this way, so you can just cut the whole stem off at your desired length from the mother. however even though i keep reading that straw berries are self mulching i am still new and can't really tell the difference between disease and natural die off so I just prune them anyway because we have had at least 3 cases of diseases over the last two years particularly in spring {seattle} but its also like 80 to 90 degrees on my black top patio so i get a lot of die of as well. I prune the heck out of those leaves and stems and my two year old plants are producing there first large harvest of the year of about 12 to 20 berries with that many flowers coming up right behind them I did not know about the flower pruning until l recently but since i have them in pots i have also been pruning the runners pretty much as soon as they appear as well only allowing about 25% to just propagate directly into other pots then fertelize when they are reasy to be cut from the ambilical cord. But when i do this i have to prune the heck out of those runner plants all year casue they poduse just as many if not more runners than the mother on me ....tldr.. prune away cut off the whole stem even no ill effects so far.
Great info are you going to do more on growing and winter care? Would love to have a bed full of strawberries Thanks 😊🦋🦋🦋
I just planted new strawberry plants this year. I did not know that you were suppose to take flowers off. They are doing well with lots of berries that are just starting to ripen.
Only 1 of my 60 or 70 bare root plants I ordered came out of dormancy. Not sure what I did wrong. I watched all your videos and followed the instructions.
I bought a package of 10 bare root ones, but they didn't have any leaves at all, and none of them grew even though I knew I planted them correctly. I'm glad I have other strawberries growing and fruiting.
New guy. Thanks. I can sleep a bit easier now. ;)
I have never removed flowers, but I have never had luck getting them really established so they over winter either. I ordered day neutral so I think I will pinch the first month at least.
Leave them on! 😄🍁☕ luv from Ontario Canada xoxo zone 5a
I started 20 ish bare roots last year. I am probably up to 400 plants. I planted directly in grass. Cardboard over grass dug small hole, put Peat and compost in holes. I put either grass clipping or mulch on top.
You don't have rabbits or squirrels that eat them?
I’ve decided to leave my plants alone this year. Last year I took all the hands on advice and I think it hindered the plants. I think nature is smarter than me so I’ll let them be the boss and do whatever they want.
I think this is the way to go!
Thank you. I would leave them on.
My new strawberries had started developing fruit in mid-late may… pinched them off, then no buds until a week ago. Now one just bloomed today. Bees lined up to pollinate that one flower
I bought 2 types of bareroot strawberries to plant this spring. This was my first year with a garden that extended beyond potted herbs. I didn’t have my beds ready yet so I left them in the fridge for over a week before soaking and planting. All of them survived and have flowered. I elected to take fruit this year as the win since I’m having problems with my tomato plants which could end up a loss. Many are now fruiting. If these plants have gotten this far, and some of them really look great, they’ll be just fine for next spring. By then we should have some runners producing. Isn’t that how it works?
Do you still feel the same about Orange Rossolini tomatoes and can you tell me where I can find the seeds? I don't see them in your store.
Why interfere with the plants if they feel the conditions are adequate? There is mostly "I suppose..." theory as if someone asked the strawberry plants opinion on the matter. It's not like the plants have one option. They are going to send out more runners regardless of picking off the flowers or not, so might as well go with what mother nature intends AND enjoy some smaller berries along the way! :)
Another great episode of plant theory, thanks matpat's twin brother
No way to fail at gardening? Don’t worry. I do that very well. Expert at killing my plants. You named them, I’ve done them in all at some point.
I want to make an above ground bed for strawberries. How deep should I plant for the roots ? I see yours looks every small 6 inches?
My first year plants produced a nice crop last year. However, this year there are lots of berries, but most of them a small. They are everbearing, so hopefully the berries later in the summer will be bigger.
How do you reduce the runner's? Because i have limited space
I'm also a Michigan gardener. And just planted strawberries do you have any videos on what I should do when it becomes winter time? Do I cut everything down or just leave all the leaves for the next spring?
everything i have read says cut everything excepth the brand new shoouts and leaves by the crown. i even read one peice of advice to just run them over with your lawn mower! however i didn;t prune my stawberry planyts first year when i over wintereed and now they are huge this year.
You should put it to the test. Pinch off half the bed and leave the other. Could even pull up one of each next year and compare root growth.
I cut runners off of 3 mother plants and replanted after some roots were formed and filled a 8'x4' bed. Some produced a few fruit last year. 95% made it thru the winter and have more fruit this year in 3 weeks and all of last year. Let mother nature do her thing. All were planted in compost and amended with Trifecta +.
They were Milan ever bearing strawberries.
I have some srtawberry plants and they haven't flower last year. I hope they flower this year like crazy. Wish me luck.
💗💗💗
My strawberry plants only give about 3-6 strawberries, I remove the runners but I don't know what to do to increase fruit production. Do you have a remedy? Thanks MIGARDENER
So......I have new plants from the nursery that the flowers were not pollenated well and tiny misshapen berries are developing. Ii am going to pull them off. I am in Georgia so there is plenty of time to maybe sprout some more or just get bigger for next year.
Need advice. Just bought Bonnie strawberry plant. Up potted it and it put out a baby. If I plant the baby in another pot do I cut the "ambilical cord"? Haha
Do you ever have the birds eat your strawberry’s and if so how do you deal with it
The birds love to mess around with mine. I buy the green netting from the dollar store and cover my plants. Just make sure the fruit/flowers aren't being squished or hidden, so they can still be pollinated :)
We all getting older. Still gardening tho!
Second question though: I’m growing them in the green stalk and would like to save the runners to move in another bed for next year. Any strategies for getting runners to root in a vertical container?
Maybe put a table or stool next to your green stalk and fill a small pot with soil and lightly tack the runner to the top of pot until it roots. Then snip the line from the mother plant. Sometimes the runners will send out roots and you can cut the line and still root / plant it off the mother plant. Make sure to not plant it deep. I kind of lay mine on top and secure with and unbent paper clip to make sure roots are touching the soil.
Once they have a few roots forming, I cut them off from the mother plant and stick them in a separate smaller pot. You can secure with paper clip. I put it under shade until they rooted in the pot.
saw a you tube where this lady rubber bands them into plastic sandwich baggies filled with soil so she can just hang them right off the mother in mid air. she can open up the bag a bit every once in a while without disturbing the soil to check on them to see if they are ready for planting cause the clear plastic bag lets you see how establised the roots are. then she snips them when they are ready
🍓
Thank you! I covered mine with netting(2nd year I think). I'm so lazy with the strawberries, but I see much fruit not fully grown yet. They are from the grocery scraps....i added some manure.. Maybe I should uncover them for pollinating I should stop being selfish about the birds eating them...
You can get bird netting that has larger openings to let the pollinators in but the birds out.