Our reader S. Potapov from the Smolensk region asks for help:

I have been trying to grow garden strawberries for four years now. I have already replanted it to another place, changed the planting material, and sprayed it with a stimulant, and here again there is rapid flowering - the beds are like flower beds, but there are no berries! Help with practical advice.

In this case, only one practical advice can be given - carefully examine the flowers and ovaries of strawberries during and after flowering.

The reader’s statement that his strawberry bushes are blooming beautifully sounds encouraging, which means that the pre-planting soil has been well fertilized and the planting material has been purchased of good quality.

If after flowering green ovaries form, but they do not increase in size or only the first ovary in the inflorescence fully develops, then the most likely reason is a lack of nutrients or soil moisture for their absorption. Do not forget to carry out full mineral fertilizing after flowering and be sure to water the plants when dry weather sets in during this period.

If there are no green ovaries at all, it is quite possible that the pollination process is disrupted. Most modern varieties of garden strawberries have a very high degree of self-fertility, that is, they do not require pollinating varieties.

However, it is a reliably confirmed fact that when several varieties of strawberries are grown side by side, the overall yield of the plantings increases by 20-25% precisely due to better fruit set during cross-pollination. Perhaps the gardener’s mistake is that every year he bought the best variety, but only one, and it is always better, precisely for reasons of cross-pollination, to grow at least 2-3 varieties nearby.

You need to be careful when choosing early varieties. They are the first to bloom in early May, and with unusually strong flowering, in the event of night frosts, you can be left completely without a harvest. A classic example is the variety Corrado.

The first name of this variety Bouquet– its flowering is so abundant and friendly, because the flowers in the inflorescence do not open gradually over several days, but all at the same time. But if frost occurs on this particular night, then the potential crop is completely destroyed by 100%. Look - when the flower opens, the stamens and pistils inside should be bright yellow. On plants damaged by frost they are black. If the site is located in a lowland, where May frosts are a frequent occurrence, it is better to abandon early varieties altogether, giving preference to mid- and late-ripening ones.

You should also think about whether the gardener is too keen on carrying out chemical treatments and fertilizing just during the flowering period of strawberries. The strong smell of chemicals repels bees and bumblebees that pollinate flowers, which also greatly reduces fruit set.

If, upon careful examination of the flowers, you find greening of the petals of the corolla or deformation of the stamens and pistils (change in color or fusion), then immediately and completely remove such plants along with the mustache, burning them at the stake - these are signs of a viral infection.

By feeding on the juices inside the plant, they greatly weaken it.

During the flowering period, they are concentrated precisely in the peduncle, so the plant can bloom beautifully, but after flowering the ovaries turn brown and dry out due to lack of nutrients. If such signs are detected, the plants are also immediately and completely removed by burning at the stake. The soil is sown with green manure to improve its health, and strawberries are planted in this place no earlier than after 3-4 years.

1. Autumn harvest of the Queen Elizabeth II variety in open ground conditions in the Moscow region. Photo taken September 25, 2014

2. If green ovaries do not develop, there may be a lack of nutrients and moisture.

Z. A healthy flower has white petals and unfused yellow stamens and pistils.

4. But in a flower modified by a viral infection, greening of the petals and pistils and a strong elongation of the receptacle are clearly visible. Such flowers are absolutely sterile. Plants with such flowers must be removed immediately to avoid the spread of infection and contamination of the entire plantation.

5. Redness and swelling on the peduncle are a sign of nematode damage. The photo also shows the sad result - browned, dried ovaries.

Many summer residents and private home owners grow strawberries, or, as they are also called, garden strawberries. It often happens that even with good care, the harvest leaves much to be desired. Another picture: the time to harvest comes, but there are not a single berry on the bushes. There are several reasons why strawberries bloom profusely but do not produce a harvest, and all of them are important. Let's look at them.

This is interesting

Few people know that real strawberries are a rare occurrence. It can be identified by the denser “female” and “male” bushes. The latter do not bear fruit, but produce a lot of tendrils and gradually crowd out fruit-bearing bushes. The consequence of this is a sharp drop in yield: all the bushes bloom, but only a few produce berries. It turns out that growing real strawberries is quite a troublesome task. It is for this reason that summer residents have long preferred garden strawberries: they do not require much care, and all the bushes produce a harvest. But since the name “strawberry” is firmly attached to the people, let us continue to call garden strawberries strawberries.

Reason 1: lack of moisture and nutrients

Perhaps the berries are deprived of nutrients or moisture. Experienced gardeners and summer residents always feed faded strawberries with complete mineral fertilizer and water them during dry periods.

Strawberries are among the berries that are demanding on the soil, which indicates the need to know the nuances of using fertilizers.

• If the growth rate of the bushes leaves much to be desired, it is advisable to enrich the soil with nitrogen in early spring. Peat oxidation would be useful. In principle, you can limit yourself to organic matter, for example, manure, chicken droppings. Fertilizers are applied under the roots in a 2-centimeter layer and sprinkled with soil. To prepare a solution, 1 liter of organic matter is diluted in 10 liters of water. Nitrogen fertilizers accelerate plant growth, but the main thing here is not to overdo it. Excess nitrogen will cause the development of vegetative mass to the detriment of fruiting.
• At the beginning of the season, and then at the end, after pruning the bushes, it is good to feed the strawberries with wood ash. Preparation of liquid solution: ash (2 tbsp.) + boiling water. Infusion time is two to three hours. The product is dissolved in 10 liters of water. 0.5 liters of fertilizer is poured under each bush. Wood ash contains more than 30 useful elements, and there is absolutely no chlorine, which is harmful to strawberries.
• At the beginning of growth, fertilizing with a mixture of urea and microelements is effective: water (10 l) + urea (20 g) + ammonium molybdate (2 g) + boric acid. We remind you that boric acid should be dissolved in warm water.

An excellent way to increase the harvest is to feed the berry garden and mulch the bushes with a 10-centimeter layer of chopped straw. It is not for nothing that when translated from English, the name of garden strawberry is literally translated as “straw berry”. Instead of straw, you can use dry hay, sawdust, tree bark, humus or rotted manure.

It is worth noting that if the soil was well amended before planting the strawberries, then for the first couple of years you can limit yourself to only adding wood ash. After all, excess fertilizer can also lead to a decrease in yield.

Reason 2: pollination did not occur

The lack of green ovaries may be due to a disruption in the pollination process. This usually happens during prolonged rains during the flowering period. Light rain is not a problem for insects, but heavy rain prevents bees and bumblebees from doing their work. Of course, you can’t do anything about the weather, but you can attract insects on clear days by treating the bushes with warm water with the addition of honey or a few drops of anise or coriander oil.

It is possible that the cause of the problem lies in the abuse of fertilizing and chemical treatments of flowering bushes. Insects that pollinate flowers are afraid of the smell of chemicals. Add to this the number of honey bees that are decreasing every year.

Perhaps the gardener's mistake is that from year to year he grew only one variety that he liked. And although most varieties do not need pollinator varieties, experience shows that if they are nevertheless planted nearby, strawberry yields will increase by almost 30%.

The practice of experienced summer residents shows that it is more effective to grow two or three varieties of berries at once. The main thing is not to go wrong with early varieties that bloom in early May. At this time, even minor night frosts are destructive for strawberries. A striking example of this is the Bouquet berry, which dies completely during accidental frosts. In areas located in the lowlands, it is better to completely abandon the cultivation of early varieties, giving preference only to mid- and late-ripening ones.

Reason 3: weed varieties

If proper care does not give a positive result, it is likely that along with the seedlings purchased on the market, you received weed varieties, for example, Dubnyak, Podveska and others. In the garden beds the bushes look absolutely healthy, but they do not bear fruit. If berries are formed, they are small and deformed; you don’t even want to pick them. During the season, each weed bush produces about 40 rosettes. They quickly take root and fill the garden bed. If you do not get rid of these bushes in time, they will crowd out cultivated varieties. Then you definitely won’t have to wait for the harvest.

• The Zhmurka variety is easy to identify by its very low bushes and numerous wrinkled leaves. Strawberries bloom well, but instead of forming ovaries, the flowers simply close and dry out.
• Bakhmutka is a tall variety with pubescent leaves. This is a profusely flowering plant with small and pink berries. The bones are pressed in, but come off easily.
• Features of the pendant: pinkish inflorescences are clearly visible against the background of other flowers, small elongated red berries.
• Dubnyak does not form flower stalks at all.

Weed bushes are removed by double “cleaning”:

• during flowering, when among the flowering bushes the non-flowering Dubnyak bushes and the “Pendants” bushes blooming with pink flowers stand out clearly;
• during the fruiting period. At this time, weed varieties produce small berries or a complete absence of berries.

If the weed varieties have managed to fill the entire garden bed, you will have to uproot all the bushes and purchase new seedlings in a safe place. As you can see, getting rid of weeds is not so easy. That is why gardeners recommend removing any suspicious bushes from the garden.

Reason 4: pest activity

The lack of introduction may be a consequence of the activity of the strawberry weevil, a small pest that destroys up to 60% of the crop. The presence of this insect can be determined by holes in the leaves and bitten buds, which hang on the brush for a long time and then dry up.

Since the females managed to lay their eggs in the damaged buds, it is too late to spray the plants with anything and preventive work should be postponed. In the fall, you should collect all plant debris and loosen the soil around the bushes. And in the spring of next year, during the period when the buds appear, treat them with insecticides. It is better to use biological products: “Iskra”, etc.

Reason 5: viral infection

If, when examining the flowers, you find that the petals have turned green, and the pistils and stamens have grown together or changed their color, you can immediately tear out and burn the bushes - this is a clear sign of a viral infection.

It is better to plant new bushes in place of onions, garlic, carrots, beets, legumes or salad crops. Bulbous flowers, such as tulips, are also considered favorable predecessors. But you shouldn’t plant strawberries in place of potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers and sunflowers.

If it doesn’t work out with a new plantation in a fresh area, you can plant the strawberries in their original place. Before this, the land is neutralized. You will have to remove all the bushes and select the soil using a spade bayonet.

The filled pit is leveled and white mustard is planted. It grows quickly and disinfects the soil. If you sow green manure in early July, then by the end of the month the mustard will be preparing to flower. Before it blooms, the greens should be cut with a shovel flush with the soil, finely chopped and dug into the ground.

After this, marigold seeds are sown in the garden bed. By the end of August they manage to collect a sufficient amount of greenery. At the end of summer, they should also be chopped with a shovel and buried to a shallow depth. If desired, you can have time to sow mustard again. With the onset of frost, it will fall to the ground on its own. The garden bed is left in this form until spring. When the soil warms up, all that remains is to add humus and a little ash.

Disease prevention involves washing newly acquired seedlings until all the soil is washed away. Then the plants are immersed for a quarter of an hour in a saline solution: salt (5 tbsp) + water (5 l). The water procedure is repeated. After this you can plant it. Next to strawberries, calendula, marigolds or winter garlic will be useful. The place can be turned strawberry after at least three years.

Many problems that prevent the formation of strawberry ovaries after good flowering can be prevented. If time has been lost and nothing can be done this season, just learn from your mistakes and you won’t have to deal with a similar problem in the future.

Everyone loves strawberries. Even if it turns out small and not too sweet, you can make excellent jam and compote from it, thanks to which you will remember summer with warmth throughout the winter.

But in the spring you look at the actively greening strawberry beds, and suddenly you begin to notice that the flowers among the succulent leaves do not turn white at all, or they are there, but there are very few of them... When do you need to start getting nervous and remembering radical measures?

• Organic fertilizer, as well as ash (in early spring or autumn).
• Regular, but not too abundant watering.
• Mulching (this “procedure” will help strawberries to grow not only in moist soil and without the presence of weeds, but also to produce clean, “marketable” berries).
• Frequent removal of excess tendrils that deplete the bushes.
• Prevention of pests and diseases.

Pests include: strawberry whitefly, hairy bronze fly, green peach aphid, leaf beetle, nematode, nettle leaf weevil, spider and strawberry mites (undermine the leaves and stems of the plant), mole cricket, cockchafer (the larva destroys the roots of the plant), slugs, ants, wasps (they love to eat sweet berries).

Therefore, when forming buds, they use prevention by buying “Admiral”, “Fitoverm” and similar products. This measure is especially important if your plant is an early variety.

As for diseases, these are: late blight, gray rot, powdery mildew and many others. Disease prevention is carried out in early spring, when the first strawberry leaves appear. The bed is sprayed with a solution of Bordeaux mixture (3%).

When should strawberries, with proper care, begin to bloom?

This depends on many factors, and first of all, on the variety of the particular strawberry. However, you can give general information.

• Bushes transplanted in autumn can be decorated with flowers as early as mid-June. And in July you will also enjoy berries.
• Remontant varieties can please you with repeated flowering (and fruiting) in August - early September.

Why can a plant “forget” about flowers?

It’s not scary if your strawberries are “carried away” only by growing mustaches in the first year after planting. During this period, the plant strengthens itself in the garden bed, preparing for future fruiting.

But if the flower boycott continues for 2-4 years, things are bad. In some cases, chemical “therapy” will help, in others you just need to be patient, and in others you need to radically “redraw” the garden bed...

• The bushes are old. That is, they grow in the garden for more than 5 years. There is only one way out: transplantation. Remove old bushes and plant new ones. Experienced gardeners are sure: this crop needs to be renewed every 4 years, completely weeding out the old bushes.
• The bushes were planted late (in August of this year or even later). In your case, you will have to wait for the harvest only next year. Next time, replant strawberries in May or early June at the latest, or even better, in the fall. And insulate this planting well for the winter - it will be afraid of frost.
• The bushes are planted incorrectly. They may not like the planting either too high or too deep (in this case, the hearts may even begin to rot). When forming a bed, remember: the heart of the bush should be at ground level, not deeper and not higher. If you inspect the garden bed and see that this is not the case, try to correct the situation. For example, if the strawberries have “climbed” too high, add more soil, and if they are too deep, carefully dig out the bed.
• The bushes are overfed with the wrong things. If you give the soil too much nitrogen, this has a positive effect on the growth of leaves and tendrils, but a negative effect on the appearance of flowers and fruits. So nitrogen fertilizers should be replaced with simple watering (that is, with clean water). True, you can expect the effect of this for a whole year. Or the second option: in the second half of summer, cut off most of the foliage, and after that give the plant potassium-phosphorus fertilizer.
• The bushes are underfed. Traditionally, this crop is fed three times per season: as soon as you plant the bushes (use fertilizer with phosphorus, it will help the plant take root quickly), just before flowering (strawberries need potassium here), and also at the end of the season, when the crop is ripe and harvested (now you can remember about nitrogen, and besides, the plant again needs phosphorus).
• "Tasteless" land. Strawberries do not like clayey, heavy soil. If this is exactly what you have, but you dream of planting this crop, before you start forming the bed, try to somehow improve the soil: add sand (coarse), and of course, humus. Sometimes drainage (at the base of the beds), or stationary beds on a hill, helps to get a decent harvest.
• Insufficient watering. There is no need to flood the bushes - strawberries will die in constant puddles. But if there is no moisture, it may refuse to bloom. By the way, you need to remember about watering (if there is no rain) even after harvesting. How do you know if watering is sufficient? Dig the soil: it should get wet by at least 5 cm. And remember: if the flowers have already appeared, you should water the plant only at the root!
• The bushes lack pollination. In this case, flowers will still appear, but will not be able to turn into berries. There may be several reasons: there are few insects on the site (primarily bees), it rains constantly. If the apiary is somewhere nearby, do not scare off the winged helpers with insecticides. These remedies are not prohibited in principle, but it is better to temporarily forget about them during pollination.

• The bushes don't get enough sun. Strawberries are a heat-loving crop. If you plant bushes in the shade of trees with dense foliage, they will take root without difficulty, but will refuse to bear fruit. Your strawberries are lacking light if they only produce leaves with long petioles and are pale in color.
• The bushes suffer from pests. For example, the earthen weevil has gotten into the habit of laying eggs directly into the buds, destroying the flower buds. But here it’s the other way around - you can’t do without insecticides. True, they need to be applied correctly: start spraying as soon as you see the beginnings of the buds, but the flowers have not yet appeared (ideally, spraying should be carried out 5 days before flowering). The insecticide is applied in the morning and will work throughout the day. A good example of such a product is “Fitoverm”; after applying it, the berries will be completely edible.
• Nature intervened. Flowering may be delayed (or very poor) if the spring is cold, and even rainy. The fact is that when the temperature drops, the roots of this plant work poorly, so the strawberry bushes receive little nutrition, even if the soil is good and fertilizer is applied (and rains completely wash away minerals from the upper part of the soil). In your case, covering with agrofibre will help. In addition, a snowless winter may be the culprit of all your problems: flower buds of strawberries not hidden under the snow may freeze. Therefore, if winters in your region are not pleasant with snow, cover the strawberry bed with the same agrofibre or old leaves in the fall.
• Too many antennae. Why does the plant throw them out? To “capture” more space in the garden bed. But strawberries spend a lot of energy on the formation of these tendrils, and often there is none left for flowers. And therefore, if you remove excess shoots, after a short time you can see the appearance of the first flowers. However, if you need seedlings, leave the strongest tendrils - new bushes will sprout on them.

First of all, you need to deal with the planting material. It is necessary to purchase strawberry seedlings only from trusted nurseries and pay attention to which bush is male or female. For normal fruiting, both species are selected; you just need to know that the males are the strongest and have the best foliage. The female ones are stunted and look like weak, underdeveloped plants. In recent years, nurseries often do not sort strawberry mustaches into males and females, so the gardener, out of ignorance, can choose only male mustaches for planting. And when they grow, they give a huge summer increase in whiskers, without setting flower stalks and, accordingly, without forming berries. Another advantage of purchasing seedlings in nurseries is that you purchase varietal, proven planting material.

The wrong choice of planting time for strawberries is one of the main reasons for the lack of flowering of plants and the abundant formation of mustaches. The optimal time for working with these crops for the central part of the country is considered to be early to mid-August. In the period before the first cold days, the bushes take root well, they have time to lay berry buds, and next year it is quite possible to collect, albeit a small, but sufficient harvest of berries. Otherwise, all the strength of the plant is spent on growing the root system and leaves, there is no time left for laying fruit buds and harvesting is postponed for the season. This summer, all the energy is spent on reproduction, that is, on the formation of mustaches.

The next important reason is improper placement of young antennae. If the growing point of the bushes is too deep, they can rot and die. Therefore, it is worth inspecting the plants and, perhaps, slightly raking the soil away from the germination site. There will be no harvest this season.

Another reason that the bushes do not bear fruit is the chosen planting location. Garden strawberries are a light-loving plant and quite picky about the soil, so the bed for planting the crop should be well lit by the sun all day and have nutritious, well-drained soil. Heavy loams, and even in poor lighting, do not contribute to the formation of berries. In this case, all the power of the plants goes to the growth of the mustache. During frosty winters with little snow, fruit buds may freeze, therefore, based on the weather conditions of your zone, it is worth considering that in the fall it is necessary to begin snow retention on the site. It is possible to cover plantings with berries with old branches, spruce or pine spruce branches, and straw.

Particular attention should be paid to watering berry plantations. If there is a lack of moisture during the set of colors and during the fruiting period, there is a possibility of being left without a harvest. The bushes should be watered abundantly, combined with fertilizing. But strong overfeeding with nitrogen fertilizers can deprive the harvest, since in this case the plants begin to “fatten” - the leaves are large and beautiful, but the bushes do not throw away flower stalks. It should be noted that to obtain a good harvest, all growing mustaches must be removed. For propagation, only the first tendril from the bush is left, but in this case the number of berries is reduced.

Strawberries are one of the most aromatic and delicious berries. It rightfully occupies a leading position among most other berries in terms of the amount of useful substances it contains. It contains iron, sodium, magnesium and other vitamins that have a positive effect on the human body. And due to the fact that the culture is not at all picky and thrives in a temperate climate, many gardeners plant it in their garden plot. However, some misfortunes with strawberries sometimes happen, one of the most common is the lack of flowering of the crop. After many years of research, gardeners were able to identify several reasons why strawberries do not bloom. The most common ones are:

• late planting of strawberries;


• improper planting of strawberries;


• excessive fertilizing of crops;


• lack of nutrients.

Now let's look at these reasons in more detail. So, late planting of strawberries most often contributes to the fact that the crop does not bloom. From this it follows that strawberries should be planted in open ground no later than the beginning of August. Those gardeners who are just starting to grow strawberries make the mistake of planting only in the fall. Because of this, the bushes do not have time to take root properly and gain strength; in the spring, the surviving seedlings, instead of starting to bloom, try to take root and leaf as best as possible so that the next cold season does not become their last.

Strawberries may also stop blooming due to improper planting (the bushes are planted too deep, or, conversely, too high). Therefore, when planting, you must not forget that the heart of the berry should be at the same level with the ground. If these agrotechnical rules are violated, then as soon as they are discovered, work should be done and everything should be corrected.

It should also be remembered that strawberries will not bloom if they are fed excessively. Amateur gardeners believe that a large amount of nutrients helps the growth of the bush and has a beneficial effect on the abundance of flowering, but this is absolutely not true. In fact, with excessive feeding, strawberries only grow foliage, while “forgetting” about the flower stalks. To solve this problem, you need to stop fertilizing strawberries with nitrogen-containing fertilizers, but at the same time do not stop watering them. Within a year, the condition of the bushes will normalize, and healthy fruits will appear.

The last reason for the lack of flowering of a crop is the lack of fertilizing. In this case, solving the problem is simple: you just need to fertilize the seedlings on time. The work should be carried out three times per season: after planting strawberries in the ground (fertilizing must contain phosphorus, it helps plants quickly take root in a new place), before flowering (feeding should contain a lot of potassium), and after harvesting (fertilizing phosphorus and nitrogen should predominate).

To summarize, I would like to note that all these reasons for the lack of flowering are directly related to the human factor, but we should not exclude the influence of nature. It also affects the formation of peduncles and the formation of ovaries. For example, if it is cold in the spring and it rains often, then the flowering will be less abundant, because at low temperatures the root system of plants works less actively, nutrients are supplied in insufficient quantities, and if we take into account the fact that due to the abundance of rain, minerals are washed out from the upper parts of the soil quickly enough, then no matter how much you feed the plants, it will still have virtually no effect on the abundance of flowering.