Strawberry plants flower, but produce no fruit!

[praton]

I'm kind of at a loss here, but I have a relatively large bed of strawberry plants that I haven't been tending over several years, but the plants themselves seem to be flourishing.



As far as I can remember, these plants haven't ever bore fruit - maybe the first year? They're fairly old plants (7+ years?), and I hear you should replace the plants after 2-3 years depending on the variety (I don't remember what variety I purchased). I just think it's odd that the plants would produce this many flowers and not a single strawberry for several years. They don't look like barren strawberries to me (Potentilla sterilis).

Do you think fertilization is the only issue here? I could try to fertilize them this year with a q-tip or small paint brush or something? I'm assuming all strawberry plants are self-fertile, is it possible this is just 1 giant strawberry plant (I didn't plant many, so it have been a sole survivor) that has some infertile DNA? Just looking for advice before I decide to tear up the garden and plant something else or at the very least - a new batch of strawberry plants. If it helps, it's on the south side of that wall, so it gets a good chunk of sunlight. Also, I'm in the Chicagoland area.

[rainbowgardener]

I don't know for sure, but your strawberry patch is uncared for and way over crowded. They generally say to cut most of the runners off a strawberry plant, so that it will focus on producing berries rather than new plants.

Have you been fertilizing (meaning adding nutrients to the soil, not meaning pollinating)? Strawberries can fail to set fruit with too little nutrient or too much, mainly too much nitrogen, which produces lots of big leafy growth at the expense of fruiting.

Strawberries do need pollinators. Each flower has male and female parts, but they are fertilized by pollen from other flowers. Generally nature takes care of this if you have bees and other pollinators around.

[praton]

I don't know for sure, but your strawberry patch is uncared for and way over crowded. They generally say to cut most of the runners off a strawberry plant, so that it will focus on producing berries rather than new plants.

Have you been fertilizing (meaning adding nutrients to the soil, not meaning pollinating)? Strawberries can fail to set fruit with too little nutrient or too much, mainly too much nitrogen, which produces lots of big leafy growth at the expense of fruiting.

Strawberries do need pollinators. Each flower has male and female parts, but they are fertilized by pollen from other flowers. Generally nature takes care of this if you have bees and other pollinators around.

Yeah, it's actually at my parents' house who live 2 hours from me now, so I don't have the time to keep up that many gardens while also repairing cars on the weekends. heh...

I'll try pollinating them tomorrow and report back with the results in a few weeks. If that doesn't bear any fruit (pun intended), I'll thin them out, plant some more strawberries and some flowers around the area that bloom at the same time to attract bees. (Suggestions?) Those results won't be on here until next year, though.

[imafan26]

The plants are producing flowers, strange that there are no fruit. Except for the weeds they look pretty healthy. My guess is that the flowers are not getting pollinated enough. Do you have a lot of bees or other pollinators around.

The bed probably could use some renovation and more compost, but I don't think it is a fertilization issue. Strawberries either produce runner or flowers. Yours are producing flowers so if they are getting enough pollinators visiting them they should be producing berries.

[praton]

Found someone else with the same problem! I think the strawberry plant might need some friends. Should there be a lot of pollen on the qtip I used when done? Because there didn't seem to be... I swear this plant is not self-pollinating.

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... hp?t=25284

[JONA878]

There is one other idea.
Most growers of Everbearers plant two vars together as it seems they are very poor self-pollinators.
Also Vars of Day-neutral straws can be weak as regards pollination.

[imafan26]

I would suggest to increase the pollinators you plant other nectar plants around and do not use pesticides on the property which will kill beneficial insects faster than pests.