My Edibles: Strawberry Trees WA

Guava - Strawberry (Seedling) ^3/10

Comments: -

Four little plants from Bunnings, planted quite close together (just over 1m apart as I'm hoping to create a dense hedge) in 2010. I've loaded them with compost and some blood & bone. Hopefully the soil improvements will be enough - but the soil is very poor and likely to stunt their growth (hence planting them so close)! They really don't appear to enjoy large amounts of WA sun (they will be blasted in summer) so I'm hoping they can make it. I've recently tasted a few strawberry guavas in my grandfather's yard in Melbourne. Delicious ... I hope that in time mine are as tasty!

They are quite fast growers, doubling in size in less than 6 months. They appear to be quite bushy - they tips are already touching (which is good from my perspective - a dense hedge is exactly what I want). I've tip pruned to encourage strength rather than straggly. Flowers and baby fruit have already appeared (October 2010)

I'm actually not thrilled with these guys. They all have the yellow guava instead of the pink, and they are getting hit by disease quite hard. They might end up being relocated (and replaced with a known feijoa) or 'donated'. Not a bad looking plant ... but just not the flavour I wanted.

Jan 2012 - tough as old boots, fruit well ... but boring.

Planted: 2010

Height 0.5 metres

Growing: In the Ground

Qty: 4

Sun/Shade: Low Sun

Pollination: Self Pollination

Pest Control:

None so far

Organic Status:Partially Organic

Strawberry Gum

Comments: -

lack of water

strawberry guava ^8/10

Comments: -

Didn't like the flavour or the large seeds with little flesh- removed the tree

Planted in 2008 and has grown rapidly with first fruit in Autumn/winter of 2009. Had me fooled for a while as the fruit were going yellow and dropping off. I've since discovered that I have the yellow variety of strawberry guava (not red) and the yellow fruit are ripe. (Definitely a strawberry guava due to large seed size)

Planted: 2008

Height 0.5 metres

Fruit Harvest: 0.5 kilograms per Year

First Fruited: 6 Months from Purchase in Pot

Sun/Shade: Low Sun

Water Given in: Autumn and Spring

Pollination: Self Pollination

Pest Control:

Strawberry - Hokowase

Comments: -

From one original Bunnings pot in 2008. Propagated over 20 plants in 2009 and kept about half. Hanging baskets and planter boxes. Mulch well in winter to get (earlier) spring fruit. Putting out runners Feb 2010 after fruiting later and less than I'd like. One plant pushed out first 2 flowers mid august 2010. Giving them liquid feeds now

Planted: 2008

Growing: In a Pot

Qty: 12

Question:

Quite a lot of red (and then dead?) leaves heading into winter. Is this normal? What do you do to get strawberries going again early in spring?

Comments

Brad, do you prune your strawberry plants since 2008? What do you feed them with? I have a pot of strawberry delight. Got two plants out of it so far and more runners coming. Just wondering what I should with them when the weather starts to cool down.

Hi au0rey... not sure how to reply so that I know you'll see it.... if you want to propagate the runners, wait until you see crowns form. You can tease these up and if they have roots, pot them up. If you cut the runners too early, you'll likely lose the plants. If you want the original plant to continue flowering over summer, cut the runners that come, when you see them. To answer your question, I only removed tired leaves (generally sunburnt). I let all runners go in 2008 from the pot shown below and I propagated those in 2 batches. This year I've no use for runners, so I'll remove them, but they haven't come yet (probably because I didn't mulch over winter and they've been slow to get going)

Hi Brad, thanks so much! I 'favourited' your page and check regularly to see if you had replied. :)My plant is having like 5 runners. For the 1st runner, I potted it before seeing roots and my son actually knocked it over one day and I saw roots, so i cut it off from the parent. I suppose it would be self-sufficient thereafter. That same runner also produced another baby so I potted that one as well. Would that be good idea? Yesterday I potted 3 other runners as they do have leaves (not sure if that is called crown) and pegged them down with wires. It's making a guess if they are ready to be cut off from the parent. I mean I cant have my son knocking it over again to see the roots haha.. So now I know from your advice, wait for the roots to appear before potting. If i do not trim off runners, does that mean smaller fruits?

Hi au0rey. Last first, no I don't think you'll get smaller fruits. But the plant will put energy into the runners rather than more flowers and fruit, so you'll get less. If a new plant has a runner attached, the energy drain on the small amount of roots might be too much. So only cut it away from the main plant when all the runners can be cut. It sounds like yours are going great. best of luck

Thanks Brad! :)

Hi Brad, how deep is your planter above..the one with 4 strawberry plants in it...can the plants in that planter last through at least one year without repotting? Do you know if strawberry have shallow or deep roots? Thanks loads!

Hi again. This thing really needs to alert me to comments... I only planted out this year. I'm sure you can go at least one year. That planter is not deep at all, ~20cm, I'd say. I've also got 2 self-watering pots in that rectangle shape of similar size. The roots do get to the bottom. The round hanging basket also has roots come through to the water resevoir. So far they seem to like it.

Guava - Strawberry

Planted: 2010

Growing: In the Ground

Pollination: Cross Pollination

Comments

Go chook!

Guava - Strawberry

Wild Strawberry

Strawberry Spinach (Seedling) ^10/10

Comments: -

Chenapodium Capitatum. This rare and unusual plant provides triangular spinach leaves of good quality, and also produces tresses of bright red berries in abundance. Very ornamental when covered in fruit. The only fruit other than strawberries, that carries its seed on the outside of its fruit. Fruit could be more tasty, but a lot better than nothing.

Fruiting Months January, February, March, April, December

Planted: 2003

Height 15 Centimetres

Growing: In the Ground

Qty: 10

Fruit Harvest: 0.5 kilograms per Year

First Fruited: 6 Months From Seed

Sun/Shade: Full Sun

Water Given in: Spring

Pollination: Self Pollination

When I Fertilise: Yearly

Pest Control:

None needed.

Organic Status:Organic

Strawberry

Qty: 4

Pollination: No

irish strawberry tree (Seedling)

Planted: 2007

Pollination: No

Organic Status:Organic

Strawberry- Alpine (Seedling) ^10/10

Comments: -

Grown from seed this is the best, strongest tasting strawberry you will ever eat. It's flavour is so intense it's like eating a tic tac (and not that much bigger). It's one of the original strawberry others were bred from- as we've made strawberries bigger - they've lost much of the flavour of this variety.

You wont get a lot of fruit off these as they're very small fruit- but they taste divine

Planted: 2008

Height 5 Centimetres

Growing: In the Ground

Qty: 10

Fruit Harvest: 0.5 kilograms per Year

First Fruited: 9 Months From Seed

Sun/Shade: Medium Sun

Water Given in: Autumn and Spring

Pollination: Self Pollination

strawberry