Focus on... Perpetual strawberries

When it comes to strawberries, you can never have too much of a good thing. Lucy shows you how to grow perpetual or everbearing varieties with real staying power

- Lucy Chamberlain

WE'RE all familiar with the summer strawberry, which gives rise to punnets of deliciously red fruits in June and July, but are you aware of their relatives? If I said that they'd help you extend that mouthwatering fresh berry harvest into August, September, and beyond, surely you'd want to know more? Well, here's that crucial info! Welcome to the world of perpetual strawberries.

Also known as ever-bearers, perpetual strawberries are a godsend. While conventional summer-fruiting varieties are genetically geared up to flower and fruit in late spring, perpetual types are triggered (via changes in day length) to produce their main crop in autumn. So, by planting summer and everbearing varieties together, you'll gain fresh fruits from June right through until October.

Perpetual strawberries don't produce as many runners as summer varieties, because they're using their resources to produce a harvest instead. Propagation is therefore via division in autumn and, as with summer types, plants are best replaced every two-three years. The main primary berries will be larger than subsequent ones produced on side-shoots.

Every little helps

Plants often produce a small crop in June and (if you can bear it) remove these while they're still in flower to boost the berry size of their main autumn flush. Cover these with cloches and, who knows, you might even be able to boast that you're harvesting fresh, homegrown strawberries on Bonfire Night!

Lucy's tips

Keep your strawbs at their fruity best

Be weevil wary: Keep an eager eye out for notched leaf edges, which is a sign of adult vine weevil damage. While adult vine weevils don't harm plants, their soil-dwelling grubs do, by eating roots. Nematodes applied now will thwart them.