Looking for advice on growing strawberries

Hello I have been trying to grow strawberries for a few months now I planted them around September and for the most part they are doing fine I added some wood bark to help keep weeds away But I feel like they are not growing enough leaves and I wonder if I am doing everything right If anyone has tips on growing them I would really appreciate it.

I usually watch mine grow until they are almost ripe then I get upset when the birds bugs and critters eat them all

Amari said:
I usually watch mine grow until they are almost ripe then I get upset when the birds bugs and critters eat them all

I just started planting strawberries this year so take this with a grain of salt

I have seen some success stories with birds by painting rocks red and placing them in the planting area before the berries ripen The birds may get tricked and ignore the actual fruit But that might not help with all the pests you mentioned

Good luck in the next growing season

@Brett
You can try spinners bonide repels-all and some netting The next challenge is to be quicker than the kids at picking them

@Sullivan
I am in the Northern hemisphere specifically Europe I thought I put too many in but I’m not sure if moving some to another basket would be okay I don’t want to hurt the roots

@Denali
Okay I will try that Thank you for the advice

Adi said:
@Denali
Okay I will try that Thank you for the advice

Young plants won’t have many leaves at first It takes time Are these June bearing or everbearing

Ben said:

Adi said:
@Denali
Okay I will try that Thank you for the advice

Young plants won’t have many leaves at first It takes time Are these June bearing or everbearing

I think they are June bearing I got them in September so I’m guessing they will flower in spring

@Adi
They will likely bloom closer to June depending on their age I have both types and got mine at the end of May They were a couple years old and had several plants in the pots I also planted bareroot strawberries at my old house and it took them a couple of years to flower

I plan to return to the place I bought them for more everbearing plants I really liked their flavor and was impressed by how many they produced I want to post about the type I get because I can’t remember the name right now

@Ben
Oh hopefully they stay alive until then but it’s good to know they will probably bloom Ill check out your post when you make it

I planted mine in the ground It took a few years before I got a good yield In the first couple of seasons I would get a few berries but as they grew and spread out they started producing a lot To keep them from being eaten I covered them with chicken wire because birds and rabbits were the worst but last year I didn’t even cover them because there were so many berries

My plants get a lot of full sun and need a lot of water to produce good fruit

How many plants do you have in that pot

Adi said:
How many plants do you have in that pot

I planted about 10 originally Right now I have about 8 still alive

@Baylen
I’m in West Europe The weather has been mild for a while but I wasn’t sure if they were dormant or not

Brigham said:
Is it possible to grow them in the ground or in a raised bed Once they start growing they will spread like crazy Runners will pop out everywhere and soon you’ll have a big patch of plants

It’s an option but I wanted to keep them in baskets to protect them from slugs and snails