The Lemon Fool

I have grown a lot of soft fruit, but I only planted strawberries 3 years ago, in a 10 foot square plot. Having battled late frosts (last year), slugs, squirrels and badgers, I have this year a reasonable crop, including a lot of quite large fruits. However, the taste has been disappointing to non existent. The variety is Elsanta which is widely available from garden centres, is grown commercially, and the books say should have excellent flavour.

WHat am I doing wrong? The plot is fairly open, but only gets direct sun for about 3 hours a day. Is the problem lack of sun? Should I persevere or plant something else instead?

Nimrod103 wrote:I have grown a lot of soft fruit, but I only planted strawberries 3 years ago, in a 10 foot square plot. Having battled late frosts (last year), slugs, squirrels and badgers, I have this year a reasonable crop, including a lot of quite large fruits. However, the taste has been disappointing to non existent. The variety is Elsanta which is widely available from garden centres, is grown commercially, and the books say should have excellent flavour.

WHat am I doing wrong? The plot is fairly open, but only gets direct sun for about 3 hours a day. Is the problem lack of sun? Should I persevere or plant something else instead?

We've had strawberry plants in our garden for ~4 years. Don't know what variety they are but they taste very good. We don't do anything special with them. They are in an averagely sunny spot along with other plants and bushes.

El Santa's a good cropper and ought to taste fine - in practice, though, we run a couple of other varieties as well, so as to extend the fruiting season a bit. After three years the original plants will be starting to fade and weaken, and you really ought to be rotating, using new plants from the runners. But heck, you already knew that?

Even so, that wouldn't impact on the flavour. Unless you're force-feeding them with water (and not enough nutrients, which I doubt), I suspect you're right to blame the lack of sunlight. We are also planning to move our strawberry bed out into the open next year. (Should have been this year, but we got distracted. )

I'll be interested to read other responses!

BJ

Nimrod103 wrote:WHat am I doing wrong? The plot is fairly open, but only gets direct sun for about 3 hours a day. Is the problem lack of sun? Should I persevere or plant something else instead?

We got given some plants in the middle of last year, variety unknown. They live in our cold frame up against the westerley house wall and probably get the same amount of sun as yours. They are in pots. I remembered to keep watering them a few months back, and we had lots of rain, and the first batch we had were pretty tasteless and disappointing too. Then I forgot about them a bit, they didn't get watered, and the other day I noticed the plants were looking pretty sad, but we had some more fruit that was ready, most looked a bit rustic, but one looked proper shop bought! They all tasted really good, proper like you remember as a kid tasting. From that sample of one, I'm guessing overwatering?

It is true that too much watering will make them less tasty. Equally a little watering in the morning during dry spells is also necessary.

I doubt it's a sunlight problem. I have to keep mine in a wire mesh enclosure to keep the mice and birds at bay. it's 6mm square mesh so it cuts down the sunlight substantially. The fruit tastes as it should.

Your plants should be starting to produce runners so you should be able to replace the old plants easily.

El Santa is the most tasteless variety, its big strong point is the ability to grow out of season in a polytunnel.

Lanark wrote:El Santa is the most tasteless variety, its big strong point is the ability to grow out of season in a polytunnel.

I did wonder about Elsanta being a commercial favourite for reasons not related to taste, but all my books said it had excellent flavour. Also all the garden centres/DIY stores had Elsanta, and no other varieties. I have Googled again today and found this short article from the Telegraph by James Wong, which does stress the importance of light to taste.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/h ... awberries/

I think I will ditch the strawberry bed where it is, and maybe build a new one in a sunnier part of the garden. I will also choose a different variety from a specialist grower.

Lanark wrote:El Santa is the most tasteless variety, its big strong point is the ability to grow out of season in a polytunnel.

I agree with this - Elsanta are my least favourite strawberry, to the extent I won't buy them even if they are the only ones on offer.

Mel