As wonderful as store-bought strawberries are, nothing compares to growing your own plants in the garden. What’s more, you can make sure you eat strawberries all summer long. Let’s discover together the gardeners’ secret trick to have the sweetest fruits possible.
How you can get sweet strawberries
Everyone loves that first bite of a sweet, ripe strawberry. If your strawberries haven’t produced the level of sweetness you expect, there might be an explanation. In most cases, it is the inability of strawberries to fully develop that leads to a sour taste.
If the weather was cold, cloudy or rainy during the growing season in May and June, or if temperatures rose to extreme levels, then the fruit could be sour or bitter. Poor soil conditions, low sun levels and planting at the wrong time can also lead to sour or bitter crops.
Overcrowding and untrimmed plants can also produce poor yields. So, let’s see what you can do to produce sweet and high quality strawberries?
The gardeners secret trick
An expert in growing fruit and vegetables spoke to mirrok.co.uk about how to grow and care for these plants to enjoy abundant and very sweet strawberries.
“Strawberries are small and hardy plants. They require little maintenance and each year they will give you seedlings from which you can grow even more strawberries.
But if you want an epic harvest this year, be sure to give them a healthy dose of well-rotted manure. This will speed up plant growth, which means more strawberries.” said Holly Tyers.
Next, she advises gardeners to fence off plants with netting so they don’t become bird food. It is also important that they are thinned after it has already produced a round of fruit.
“After the plant has produced a few strawberries, it will yield to producing other plants. Which is a bit inconvenient when you want to make more strawberries! Cut off most of these ‘stolons’ and you may get a delicious second crop,” continued the specialist.
How do you get rid of pests too
Holly Tyers, who has been passionate about growing fruit and vegetables since she was a child helping her father in the garden, also shared her top tip for sweeter fruit taste. She says lamb’s tongue should be planted next to strawberries, hailing this plant as a perfect companion.
This is a plant also known as the star flower and is said to be very successful in keeping away pests that can destroy the fruit.
Also read: The powerful mix to sprinkle on strawberries. They will be much tastier that way
