Whatever else you do, DON'T PICK THE FLOWERS OFF - this is where the berry
comes from.

The crop from the first year is never very good but second and third years
you should find a vast improvement. In theory they should be replaced in the
fourth year - not 100% convinced of this but if you keep taking runners,
then you do have the opportunity of replacing at regular intervals.

They do need lots of feed - suggest high potash content.

Jeanne
"Fergal" wrote in message
...
Hi

I had a go a growing some strawberries last year without much success. I
got
a few diffent plants from garden centre including Cambridge Vigour,
Favourite and a couple of others I can't remember. I stuck them outside in
growbags (6 plants in each) on a raised platform and watered, fed with
tomato food after the flowers had formed and picked off dead leaves etc. I
used growbags as I don't have a lot of space. The few strawberries that I
actually got were very tasty, just not many of them.

I totally neglected the plants over the winter with the intention of
binning
them this year and trying a different technique. They seem to have perked
up
though and I've taken off and planted some of the runners which also seem
to
be doing well. Last years plants have loads of flowers at the moment. I've
read that flowers should be picked off. Why is this? As the old plants
seem
to be doing well in last years growbags, I've left them. Should I
transplant
them to new growbags? Any other strawberry growing tips?

TIA

Fergal

PS I'm in the Bristol area if it makes a difference.