Hey man this is my third year growing greenhouse tower strawberries. The first year I grew seascape and it was amazing however some other Albion plants from a different nursery and they brought cyclamen mites. I got wipes out for 2 years in a row because I didn’t identify and didn’t stay on top my spraying. I live in Alaska so obviously our temps are cold making soil cooler and converting starch into sugars. Our root veggies are amazing due to this quality. I’d bet your high nighttime temps and high humidity is your problem. Not to mention the mites. Apparently strawberries don’t like anything over 55 degrees at night and sugars are reduced. I think your fertilizer program is fine although I fertigate with a 3 part strawberry formula. 5.8 ph 1.0 ec. You the man
We have had the same experience this year. Last year, as a trial, we grew them in the natural ground with a covering of compost having first tilled in some well rotted manure. We didn't water them as much as we believed we should have and they were gorgeous! This year we planted them in containers and fed/watered them daily and they are tasteless like yours. Next year we are going back to the previous system! At least we are only being hit for 1 bed worth but I feel your pain. Perhaps try letting them dry out a bit and less drip fertiliser? Just found your channel and it is great content. Keep up the good work
look at your current soil conditions. Strawberries perform best in well-drained, fertile, and slightly acidic soils. In fact, these plants tend to yield more and are sweeter when grown in compost-enriched, sandy soil. Planting strawberries in raised beds is also a good idea, as this (along with adequate soil) ensures for better drainage. Raised beds are also easier to maintain. Another important factor when growing this fruit is location. Beds should be located where they receive at least eight hours of sunlight, which is essential for producing sweet strawberries.
6 or so spider mites per leaflet can ruin strawberry flavor by sucking the sap out of the plant. Also, fertilizers that cause the plant to take up water(like ammonium nitrate) dilute sugars by taking up so much water. Either one can easily ruin the flavor of a strawberry
Also, day neutrals usually go through a phase where they taste bad because they are temporarily diverting sugar away from fruit and towards forming the new buds which will be the later summer fruit crop.
Strawberries (especially day neutrals) require night temperature below 52* for best flavor. My guess is that the high tunnel has been staying too warm for the flavor to develop. Only thing you can do is make sure to leave the high tunnel open at night but it is already getting too hot so theres not much you can do.
I think this is the case also. Maple syrup only flows when day temps are high and nights are chilly. High tunnels give the warmth that the field berries don't get. If all conditions are the same, water, fert, etc, then what are you left with? Temp.
My grandfather has been ranch in almost his entire life. When I was on the ranch in his tunnels, they would release thousands and thousands of ladybugs. It was a natural prevention and when there was an infestation the ladybugs would continue to eat the mites. I would not spray any plant with pesticide, I would release hundreds of thousands of ladybugs on your property. Also if you keep the heater on one side of the tunnel it will keep it warm enough to make sure all the ladybug survive and stay in that tunnel under the leafs. They will maintain themselves as long as they have water to drink. You’re welcome. Hope this information helps you
In 2015 I raised strawberries in my hightunnel and because of the enclosed environment disease was a little bit of a problem. I raised squash one year in the tunnel and the aphids were out of control, had to plow up the crop. God Bless.
When you sell them, sell them as jam/jelly strawberries It probably has something to do with the lack of sun and heat. When I tried to force grow strawberries early a few years ago we had a cold spring similar to what you are having atm and they didn't turn out great to eat fresh but they made amazing jam/jelly
Strawberries prefer slightly acidic soils with a pH of between 5.5 and 6.5. Strawberry plants are extremely sensitive to salinity, especially at the transplant stage. Since the strawberry plants are shallow rooted, permanent moisture is necessary to maximize production. . As strawberries grow they will produce runners that will spread out and root to produce additional plants. Position the first runners with approximately 15 cm (6 inches) spacing between them. Only allow a few runners per plant, then remove additional runners to promote crown growth. Potassium is required by strawberry plants to help them acquire water through the roots and control water loss by transpiration. Potassium may compete with magnesium for uptake by the roots and must, therefore, be maintained at an appropriate ratio (4:1, K:Mg) in the soil solution to prevent one of these nutrients from overriding the other, thereby creating a deficiency.
They have mites on them, there is in bug infestation problem. If you water them less you’ll stress the plants out more, it will help the strawberries get sweeter but you’ll start to kill all the plants this way. You need to get the plants healthy so they can fend off the mite problem and bug problem. Then water than less and I’ll get sweeter. But if you stress them out when they’re sick they’ll get sicker and the bugs will attack them even more. This has been my experience. Would love to hear others remedies as well. Have a great day #CaliforniaRancher
@@dracoarawn4002 really needs to go organic and work on getting the microbial population back up,it's been decimated with chemical salts,once you get critters back up ,it will take of a lot of the soil imbalances as well.
I've discovered these things through many years of gardening, If you go organic you can accomplish amazing things,I've got three world records for the biggest tomato, my latest one weighed 10.80 lbs. You can look it up in the Guinness book of world records.
@dan I believe organic is best, no doubt, but what I'm saying is there is no proof that chemical fertilizers kill the soil food web. Synthetic fertilizers are basically like a synthetic multivitamin, are they what the body really should be having? No, but they get The job done. I'm trying to grow food and 20-20-20 does the job way better than all the expensive organic fertilizers.
I agree the weather is weird lately... Each week says its going into the 68+ F yet rarely hits 60. I still have yet to see a hot day, it's just cold and gray. (Zone 10a in California!!)
Using leaves as mulch makes a lot of fruit taste better. I have tried just using fertilizer and they don't taste good they either don't really have a taste or very sour tasting. The plants I have fertilized and mulched in with decomposing leaves taste super sweet you can try it
agreed 100%. The field berries get more natural minerals from the ground. To much water and fertilizer and water reduce the flavor as well. I would use more cured compose in the tunnels with organic matter to increase flavor and uniformly.
I don't know how or what kind of equipment you are using to spray in the tunnel with, but I suggest a Sthil 450 mist bower. You have to be able to force the spray deep into the strawberry crown. A must have for hightunnel tomatoes too.
Dre, Hey man I would say you need to control the environment more with moving to vertical grow towers. You can still grow organic, and you can grow more in less space, and do them in the high tunnel. The best part is that you get the plants off the ground which always leads to insect, fungi, disease, and wilt issues. Additionally, you can protect the quality of the berries by providing nutrients and water on a more precise level. Berry flavor issues are often due to insects and disease problems and those of soil conditions . Keep us updated on what you decide to do next year. For now check your soil and plant leafs. Rb. Bronson Farms
Basically your plants are having an energy crisis, something is restricting their photosynthesis and that is causing the mites and the poor flavour, the main nutrients needed to optimize photosynthesis are manganese, iron, nitrogen and magnesium, based on your Fertiliser I would recommend foliar spraying manganese and iron with molasses which will help with the mite problem by giving the plant the energy to convert the ammonia that the mites love in to protein which they cannot digest, the nutrients you need have to be chelated and in the correct form, use rebound manganese and rebound iron from aea, some of there humacarb would be a good idea too. One other thing you could do with the June bearers is to use a fairly strong application of boron as a foliar, this will move sugars from the leaves to the fruit but I would not do this until you are 2 weeks from the end of harvest. Also cut back on the nitrogen, nitrates dilute flavour dramatically
There is another possibility, the metal micronutrients are supposed to accumulate in the strawberry seeds, this produces the hormone cytokinin which tells the plant to send sugars to the fruit, if the seeds are deficient in these metals then the plant will not send the sugars in, a broad foliar of the trace metals would be a very good idea
Hey there I planted sweet Charlie and camarosa in greenhouses several years ago I did that for about 10 years they were so sweet you didnt have to put sugar on them they were always sweeter than the field grown I planted them in late September I got a quart to a plant. This year I planted Eversweet in the greenhouse they did very well and are sweet. I am here in northern Texas close to the red river are weather is off to 47 for a low and no sun I have been raising produce and bedding plants for 40 years and have not seen the weather this crazy
Day neutrals need to rippen a little longer than the June bearers. Pick them a day later then what you would with the Chandlers. And keep those sides down. They need the airflow and cooler Temps.
I would say reduce the water to the plant to a point of stress and pump them full of potassium nitrate. The water stress thing will force it to send all the energy to the fruit and the pot nitrate will give em what they need to make sure you still get more blooms and big fruit while the plant thinks its running out of time.
Hello mate, dont be over critical on yourself or your product. i bet they taste great like said still better than a supermarket. Dont forget polytunnels are only to get ahead of the game for a few weeks.
You probably already know, but the berries need a lot of potassium to develope sugars in the fruit. We grow day neutrals outdoors and people love them, especially Albion. People rave about how much better they taste than the June bearing ones around here. They are much sweeter.
High Tunnels can definitely get "hotter" accumulations of nutrients in the topsoil... salts, nitrates, Phos, etc... simply because of the lack of flushing from rainwater. So flush the soil with greater water volumes, more often, if possible
The mites really kill any potential for a good harvest. I've experienced it a few times, I've even seen the plants send out a goo to catch the mites in...
Hey Drae, like your Chanel,we are in UT zone 6b grow Albion first crop is usually not that great but summer fall nock it out of the park in taste and size, how are your blueberries doing?
Try not to spray the mite killer you can buy in the store. Dilute iso to 15 to 20% and then high ventilation for 10 min to dry quickly. No residue, won't harm plants if dilution is correct and it will instantly kill all hatched mites. It will not kill eggs so spray every 5 to 8 days.
Dude you need to do your own stuff by experimenting. Research and extensions are somewhat not reliable on berries. From covers to plug vs cutoff plants it’s all BS. They are one of those crops that are difficult to understand. As for the mites- you need to spray something like agrimek to avoid mites in the first place- even if they’re not there. In your case, of them being present, spray acramite and go back in a few weeks and spray another like nealta. If your worrying about the price of spraying then you don’t need to be growing strawberries. Berries are an expensive crop if you want to actually have great yields and super sweet berries. That’s why I leave all of my local berry competitors in the dust. Their berries don’t compare to mine because I am willing to spray at least once weekly for prevention AND to actually treat pests. My advice Dre is to keep your head up and keep grinding. Nobody teached me anything. I learned from messing things up like you did just now. Once you learn it’ll be super easy and it’ll be like playtime! Till then, keep working👍
Hey, fellow Farmer from EU here. Day neutrals taste like shit compared to junebearings. Nothing is going to change that. We have berries in tunnels on tabletops and they grow on coconut mesh. We believed that taste problems were due to wrong amount of micronutriens BUT if your berries taste bad that is quite surprising. We had some success to better taste when we started to lowering temp in the greenhouse during nights. U will have best results when temps are "natural" during nights.
What did you feed them? were they good last season, any changes. I had good flavour with Jacks classic bloom booster available a greenhouse megastore.com. you should be able to correct the new berries (not the existing) lots of info to look at in your replys.
Those mites are causing the problem. Your action should not be to spray for mites, your action should be to kill 100% of the mites immediately. Spider mites are quick to become resistant to sprays. You can't just spray them you have to kill every single mite in there. I know it sounds harsh but I would rip those berries out and sterilize the entire area. Otherwise you are breeding mites that are developing resistance. The mites love that warm steamy environment you have created inside that tunnel but keep in mind that in a few weeks it will be warm and steamy outside and those resistant mites will be happy to migrate. Right now you have them isolated because the night time temperatures are still to low outside.
False. Spraying the correct Miticite/Insecticide at the correct time along with combining with other cultural methods. Enchanted IPM to prevent resistance and use rotate sprays. Expensive sprays specially for the type of mite is almost always going to control enough to where you can continue to grow and harvest the crop without no major problems or yield reductions.......
I had some of your strawberries from Saturdays farmers market they had to much water you will need to stop watering until they start to look like they are very thirsty and only water if they need it also the heat the warmer it is the better and more concentrate the flavor
I think the to much Nitrogen takes flavour.I suggest yo to wash out the nutrients of the plants,give them just water.They have a lots of nutrients deposited in their leafs and stems.If i am you,i would only give them plain water or plain water with a bit of epsom salt and potasium to increase the terpenes in that fruits.See you at the nexr video! :)
Hi Dre Isn't flavour the last thing to develop in a plant See the work of Dan Kitteridge And that it's a sign the plant is unhealthy something may have gone wrong with your fertilisation programme or your soil is not delivering the right combination of resources for the plants to be healthy Eddy
What fertilizer are you using and how often? Day and morning temperatures? Humidity percent? How often are you watering? Let me know and I talk to my strawberry consultant expert for you.
Put some walls up around each row and flood them with water like they do with cranberries and let it set for a couple days. That will kill all of the mites. Then don’t water the strawberries ever again. 😂🤷♂️
what are you doing different? same ferts? get soil tested. i doubt they mites are sucking that much flavor away but they are a sign of something being wrong. bugs come in to wipe out weak plants.
Cannot give you advice on what to do. If they do not recover use the strawberries to make juice. At least that way you might get something back in return.
