Strawberries and raspberries disaster etc., Summer 2022

Gardening to 'grow your own food' from square foot to half an acre !!
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Spreckly
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Strawberries and raspberries disaster etc., Summer 2022

Post by Spreckly »

Since my husband started the vegetable plot seventeen years since, the trees on either side of our narrow garden have increased in size, and on one side, they hang over, shading the ground underneath.

This is the first year I have not had one single strawberry, nor did they flower. My rasps, which were carefully sorted last back end, were small, peasized little offerings, though I did pick a few, and eat them in situ.

To add insult to injury, my three apple trees of which two had a small amount of fruit now have one small apple left. It looks as if something has eaten through the stems of the others. There are squirrels around, I wonder if they are to blame.

And my aged pear tree, which had two pears a few weeks' since now has none!

Disappointing.
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kitla
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Re: Strawberries and raspberries disaster etc., Summer 2022

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Oh dear, I have years like that. Last year something pinched all the apples from my little tree (yes a squirrel I think) My runner beans got diseased & the tomatoes & cucumbers got blight. This year my blackcurrants have all dropped off early & the blight is back. I think the hot weather affected some things badly. We'd be in trouble if we were reliant on growing our own food wouldnt we!
"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."
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lancashire lass
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Re: Strawberries and raspberries disaster etc., Summer 2022

Post by lancashire lass »

What I found in 2018 when we had a dry warm spring followed by a long spell of dry hot weather over the summer right through to September (I remember the grass fields in the area was yellow and dry), the birds had pecked most of the fruit on the trees in my garden even though they weren't ripe. I had given up my allotment plot in June 2017 with intentions of putting my efforts into my back garden. In 2016 I had rescued the pond on the allotment and I loved it so much that in 2017 I had decided to spend that summer building a pond on the back patio and had decided to tackle the garden in 2018. When I had finally cleared years of neglect, I found the old bird bath and cleaned and filled it up with water. No sooner had I walked away, the birds (and I even remember seeing the bumble bees visiting it too) were there. Perhaps the lack of fruit may be the result of (i) dry ground - hence the small raspberries and lack of flowers and fruit on the strawberries (ii) birds and squirrels eating all the fruit is because it is a source of water as well as food (bearing in mind if you are experiencing dry conditions in your area that their normal sources of food and water will be scarce too)
kitla wrote: 28 Jul 2022, 07:46 Oh dear, I have years like that. Last year something pinched all the apples from my little tree (yes a squirrel I think) My runner beans got diseased & the tomatoes & cucumbers got blight. This year my blackcurrants have all dropped off early & the blight is back. I think the hot weather affected some things badly. We'd be in trouble if we were reliant on growing our own food wouldnt we!
Obviously I don't know for sure if it is blight or not and I'm sure you know from experience and if has also affected the fruit to confirm it, but if you are only seeing it in the leaves then it is possible if the ground is dry, then it might just be the result of drought stress. Someone else I know complained they had blight on their tomatoes plants but could not understand it considering the weather was dry. I did a search on line and came across THIS ARTICLE suggesting that what looks like blight is the result of hot dry weather rather than disease. During hot sunny weather, plants are growing fast and also need a lot of water which is lost more quickly through the leaves than it can actually take up from the soil (particularly if the soil is drier than usual) Consequently, the typical scorch marks that you see on the leaves may look like blight.
When plants are unable to supply their leaves with enough water, the resulting stress can lead to death of leaf tissue, often in sections extending from the leaf edge. This is sometimes mistaken for late blight.

Plants are most prone to this stress when transpirational demand is high, which includes hot, windy weather and periods of rapid growth. It can be challenging under these conditions to avoid times when soil is neither too dry or too wet. Another factor is high humidity because it reduces transpirational water movement. Large plants in small pots are especially difficult to maintain with adequate soil moisture.
I know this thread doesn't mention courgettes or squashes but another problem a lot of people are seeing this year is blossom end rot on the fruits (just like you might see on tomatoes when the fruit blackens at the end where the flower used to be) Blossom end rot on fruiting plants is usually due to not enough water and the inability to absorb enough calcium and magnesium from the soil which all fruiting plants need, not just tomatoes. Courgettes and squashes generally need a lot of water anyway, and because they have big leaves, they lose a lot of water during hot weather so it can impact the fruit as well.
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Mo
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Re: Strawberries and raspberries disaster etc., Summer 2022

Post by Mo »

My potatoes were remarkably free from blight this year though over a third were badly hollowed out by slugs.
Runner beans doing well. Good crop from the blackcurrants & soft fruit, now I'm picking (well, should be instead of sitting here) plums. Czar with a good crop of Victorias to follow.
Yes, I often think that growing your own is all very well if you can enjoy what does well in any year, and go shopping for the rest it must have been very different if you were relying on it.
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