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Hi All...been growing veg for allmost 12 months now and loving it....

I have a prob with my first crop of strawberries...there is a good quantity of new fruit coming on but about 40% of the berries arent a true berry shape....more of a sought of bent/pointy skinny sought of shape...any ideas on whats going wrong??? too much fertiliser??? they really only have been getting seaweed solution fortnighly...they are growing in between a row of brussel sprouts on one side and tomatoes on the other. they get watered daily and were put down on seedlings on a raised row woth sheep poo blend.
Cheers.
 
AndrewM123 said:
I also get bent/pointy and out of shape if I go near brussel sprouts.. Nasty things
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Brussels Sprouts are delicious. Steam them then roll in egg and breadcrumbs, sprinkle with sesame seeds and parmesan and grill until brown and crisp on top but tender inside.
Agree they are nasty if boiled and served plain.
 
INORE said:
Hi All...been growing veg for allmost 12 months now and loving it....

I have a prob with my first crop of strawberries...there is a good quantity of new fruit coming on but about 40% of the berries arent a true berry shape....more of a sought of bent/pointy skinny sought of shape...any ideas on whats going wrong??? too much fertiliser??? they really only have been getting seaweed solution fortnighly...they are growing in between a row of brussel sprouts on one side and tomatoes on the other. they get watered daily and were put down on seedlings on a raised row woth sheep poo blend.
Cheers.
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Hi INORE.

Got a bit of an idea, but need a bit more information.

How are the brussel sprouts and tomatoes alongside looking?

Was there any fert mixed with the sheep poo? Have you only applied seaweed fert, like Seasol or something, ie with no added liquid N P K such as thrive?
 
Julia said:
Brussels Sprouts are delicious. Steam them then roll in egg and breadcrumbs, sprinkle with sesame seeds and parmesan and grill until brown and crisp on top but tender inside.
Agree they are nasty if boiled and served plain.
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I'll have to try that one Julia, because I'm afraid I'm not a big fan of Brussel Sprouts either.
 
Whiskers said:
Hi INORE.

Got a bit of an idea, but need a bit more information.

How are the brussel sprouts and tomatoes alongside looking?

Was there any fert mixed with the sheep poo? Have you only applied seaweed fert, like Seasol or something, ie with no added liquid N P K such as thrive?
Click to expand...

cheers whiskers.
Tomatoes going well....brussell sprout plants now almost about 800mm high, sprouts are failing to form ie. just a bunch of open leafs that have failed to close and form a solid heart but the actual plants are big and well formed ( so i was thinking of taking these plants out which are about 5 months old now cos i dont think i am gonna get any luck)

as for the strawberry plansts, i think i followed peter cundalls recipe of 1 handful of 75% blood/bone and 25% lime mix per m2. and this all went together with the sheep poo and soil. I have only applied seasol concentrate 30ml/9litres, except for two weeks ago when i applied the packet dosage of some NPK blue about two weeks ago, but, deformations were allready there. the strawberry plants are all very healthy with no discoloration and nice growth. i think the seedlings are now about 3 months old.
Cheers.
 
INORE said:
cheers whiskers.
Tomatoes going well....brussell sprout plants now almost about 800mm high, sprouts are failing to form ie. just a bunch of open leafs that have failed to close and form a solid heart but the actual plants are big and well formed ( so i was thinking of taking these plants out which are about 5 months old now cos i dont think i am gonna get any luck)

as for the strawberry plansts, i think i followed peter cundalls recipe of 1 handful of 75% blood/bone and 25% lime mix per m2. and this all went together with the sheep poo and soil. I have only applied seasol concentrate 30ml/9litres, except for two weeks ago when i applied the packet dosage of some NPK blue about two weeks ago, but, deformations were allready there. the strawberry plants are all very healthy with no discoloration and nice growth. i think the seedlings are now about 3 months old.
Cheers.
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Yeah, I think I have it INORE.

I think if you got some Potassium Sulphate ( Potassium Nitrate will do, but not Potassium Chloride) and spread a handful or two per m2 around close to the strawberries in particular, and water in, it should fix the strawberries, and you might still get some brussel sprouts and will improve the quality and sweetness of the tomatoes.

Potassium is needed by plants more than any other nutrient, because it's important for the number and size of fruit that set. It's also important in the formation of sugars, proteins, cellulose and enzymes and allowing the leaves to breath to sort of act like 'lungs'. I'd say your plants 'lungs' are running a bit inefficiently due to a low balance of potassium particularly relative to Phosphate.

The other thing is that while seaweed is good, it is normally used as an adjunct to regular fert's like thrive to help the plant metabalise regular fert's better. Seaweeds contain, among other things, growth hormones which can cause some distortion of plants in certain circumstances if a balanced nutrient supply is not available. I think because of the relatively low levels of potassium, the flowers are not opening properly causing the fruit to bend. In some fruits even cold weather can damage the flower causing a scar on one side of the fruit where it didn't release properly and often bend or have deformed growth on it.

Your Blood and Bone and Lime mix is good for conditioning the soil and providing Nitrogen, Phosphate and Calcium, but it has no Potassium in it. A preplant fertilizer should have about equal amounts of N P K. With that mix you use I would add 1/2 handfull of Potassium Sulphate for each 1 of the blood and Bone and Lime. Actually you could use dolimite instead of lime if you want to use it for a preplant fert for each crop because dolimite isn't near as strong of a ph neutraliser and it has some magnesium also. Too much lime can cause the soil ph to rise too high and create another set of problems.

That should fix it, INORE.

PS. Your tomatoes have the most vigerous and deepest root system and would be robbing potassium from the strawberries and probably a bit from the brussel sprouts as well. That would be why they are looking better.
 
Whiskers said:
Yeah, I think I have it INORE.

I think if you got some Potassium Sulphate ( Potassium Nitrate will do, but not Potassium Chloride) and spread a handful or two per m2 around close to the strawberries in particular, and water in, it should fix the strawberries, and you might still get some brussel sprouts and will improve the quality and sweetness of the tomatoes.

Potassium is needed by plants more than any other nutrient, because it's important for the number and size of fruit that set. It's also important in the formation of sugars, proteins, cellulose and enzymes and allowing the leaves to breath to sort of act like 'lungs'. I'd say your plants 'lungs' are running a bit inefficiently due to a low balance of potassium particularly relative to Phosphate.

The other thing is that while seaweed is good, it is normally used as an adjunct to regular fert's like thrive to help the plant metabalise regular fert's better. Seaweeds contain, among other things, growth hormones which can cause some distortion of plants in certain circumstances if a balanced nutrient supply is not available. I think because of the relatively low levels of potassium, the flowers are not opening properly causing the fruit to bend. In some fruits even cold weather can damage the flower causing a scar on one side of the fruit where it didn't release properly and often bend or have deformed growth on it.

Your Blood and Bone and Lime mix is good for conditioning the soil and providing Nitrogen, Phosphate and Calcium, but it has no Potassium in it. A preplant fertilizer should have about equal amounts of N P K. With that mix you use I would add 1/2 handfull of Potassium Sulphate for each 1 of the blood and Bone and Lime. Actually you could use dolimite instead of lime if you want to use it for a preplant fert for each crop because dolimite isn't near as strong of a ph neutraliser and it has some magnesium also. Too much lime can cause the soil ph to rise too high and create another set of problems.

That should fix it, INORE.

PS. Your tomatoes have the most vigerous and deepest root system and would be robbing potassium from the strawberries and probably a bit from the brussel sprouts as well. That would be why they are looking better.
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cheers whiskers...however i did recently put down some NPK....so perhaps i will find out the balance of NPK and get back to you to see if i need to add more as i dont wanna over do it....thanks again.

and we have had some sort of unseasonal coolish 5-10deg c nites weather in perth recently so perhaps that is also contributing...
 
INORE said:
cheers whiskers...however i did recently put down some NPK....so perhaps i will find out the balance of NPK and get back to you to see if i need to add more as i dont wanna over do it....thanks again.

and we have had some sort of unseasonal coolish 5-10deg c nites weather in perth recently so perhaps that is also contributing...
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Well that probably discounts the suggestion I was going to make re possibly the B. Sprouts not being in a cold enough climate. They used to be plentiful in the South Island of NZ in Spring which would be much colder than Perth.
Similarly, the difference in taste between root vegetables grown in a cold climate and those grown in e.g. Qld is very marked. Here they just taste of nothing.
 
Whiskers said:
Hi trev.

I have mentioned earlier that Nutri-Tech is a bit more expensive and suggested cheaper options as well. I personally grow commercially in lower volume for quality and home garden for the same reason.

I find many people grow their own also for freshness and quality, because some comercial operators including the supermarkets over store fruit and veg to take advantage of buying at lower prices and kill the quality and goodness of the produce.
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gday whiskers
super markets are control freaks sending little business broke real quick they rip their customers off far too much and shoppers just keep shopping there.
on the other hand i supply supermkt chains and without them it would be super tough to survive as they pay much more than cms..
anyway hav a good 1..trev
 
Inore, whiskers will correct me if wrong (I hope) but I believe strawbs need
heavy soil like red loam to keep shallow roots moist and stronger fowl manure,
but you gotta keep the tomatoes well away from fresh strong fert.
 
well i havnt done my experiments yet but it does appear that these mutant strawberries appear to be coming of just a few of the plants...the rest seem normal...

BUT i have another prob...i planted a juvinile grafted citrus tree (about 500mm tall) and did all the right things when i put it in the hole...however that was about 3 months ago...since then it has flowered with fruit set which i promptly pinched out as i thought i was supposed to do BUT now there doesnt seem to be any and i mean any new leaf growth...the existing leaves are fine...normal colour and shape and not dropping to ground...nothing seems to be eating the existing leaves which number about 30 or so...its just stunted...i thought as the weather was warming up i would get good growth...it gets watered every 3rd day for about 15mins...and i try to water it deeply every fortnight...the ground is moist with a layer of mulch over with some sheep poo and lime/blood and bone mix in to boot. it hasnt grown a new leaf for about a month now....about 2 weeks ago i gave it the recommended dose of citrus food and still nothing HELP...sunlight of about 4-5 hours a day but that has allways been the case and it was shooting well for about a month after planting...cheers for any advice
 
INORE said:
well i havnt done my experiments yet but it does appear that these mutant strawberries appear to be coming of just a few of the plants...the rest seem normal...

BUT i have another prob...i planted a juvinile grafted citrus tree (about 500mm tall) and did all the right things when i put it in the hole...however that was about 3 months ago...since then it has flowered with fruit set which i promptly pinched out as i thought i was supposed to do BUT now there doesnt seem to be any and i mean any new leaf growth...the existing leaves are fine...normal colour and shape and not dropping to ground...nothing seems to be eating the existing leaves which number about 30 or so...its just stunted...i thought as the weather was warming up i would get good growth...it gets watered every 3rd day for about 15mins...and i try to water it deeply every fortnight...the ground is moist with a layer of mulch over with some sheep poo and lime/blood and bone mix in to boot. it hasnt grown a new leaf for about a month now....about 2 weeks ago i gave it the recommended dose of citrus food and still nothing HELP...sunlight of about 4-5 hours a day but that has allways been the case and it was shooting well for about a month after planting...cheers for any advice
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I pulled out all my citrus trees a few years ago because they were no longer getting enough sun but I do recall that the main growth period was from about April through to October/early November. It sounds as though your tree has been doing everything right and you just need to adjust your expectations. Also, I would have thought it was getting too much water at 15 minutes every third day. Unless you mean that's 15 minutes of a very slow rate drip system? They don't need that much water. My father had wonderful citrus trees which fruited heavily every year. He almost never watered them.
 
hi INORE.

I would agree with Julia. I think you are probably killing this one with kindness. Let it completely dry out for a few weeks in case you have a bit of root rot damage. Keep plenty of mulch around it but not right up against the trunk. This can cause colar rot... like ringbarking the tree.

I like to slowly saturate the soil after planting for a week or so, then err on the drier side to allow the roots to go deep and wide, otherwise they tend to 'ball' around the watered area. Pick up the watering again when flowering starts until full fruit development, then ease off again as they start ripening and you should have sweeter rather than watery fruit.

You did the right thing nipping the flower buds off. It will establish much better for that and give better crop later.

I also hardly water my citrus, mangoes etc except for the fruiting period. I like Julias phraseology... "you just need to adjust your expectations". It should come alright.

Just as a footnote luxury levels of Potassium will certainly benifit to help make the most of limited sunlight because apart from the fruiting boost, it is most responsible for thick stems, large leaves and the operation of those stomata that allow the plant to breath.
 
austek said:
Inore, whiskers will correct me if wrong (I hope) but I believe strawbs need
heavy soil like red loam to keep shallow roots moist and stronger fowl manure,
but you gotta keep the tomatoes well away from fresh strong fert.
Click to expand...

Hi austek.

Yes, strawberries only have a shallow root system and certainly do better if mulched and do like the heavier soils.

Fowl manure has a disproportionate amount of nitrogen and phosphate to potassium and can release all of it's nitrogen at once in hot wet conditions, giving vigirous plant growth but few and poor fruit. It has relatively little nutrition. It's main benifit is in conditioning the soil with microbes to deliver the nutrients into the plants roots more effectively.

You don't want to plant seedlings in fresh manures as it can burn the roots, some more than others. Mix it and let it stand for a few days. Tomatoes however will need more fert than strawberries because it is a bigger plant producing more fruit by mass.

Assuming all the plant residues are returned to the soil, the amount of fert you need to replace for the next crop is loosely proportionate to the mass of the harvest... because you took some nutrients out of the cycle with the harvest and transported them away.
 
trj6911 said:
another idea planting any tree always dig a square hole this stops roots from going in circles....
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Most definately, trj6911.

It is a flaw that people often make, particularly in heavier soils. Once I have the hole dug I like to punch a few holes in the corners for good measure with a crowbar to give the roots a spot to escape the hole.

Actually, INORE I assumed you made a square hole. But if your soil is heavy and the hole is round, when it is moist but not wet, you could drive a fork into the ground just outside the hole and lever it towards the tree a little to break up the round surface.
 
Whiskers said:
Hi austek.

Yes, strawberries only have a shallow root system and certainly do better if mulched and do like the heavier soils.

Fowl manure has a disproportionate amount of nitrogen and phosphate to potassium and can release all of it's nitrogen at once in hot wet conditions, giving vigirous plant growth but few and poor fruit. It has relatively little nutrition. It's main benifit is in conditioning the soil with microbes to deliver the nutrients into the plants roots more effectively.

You don't want to plant seedlings in fresh manures as it can burn the roots, some more than others. Mix it and let it stand for a few days. Tomatoes however will need more fert than strawberries because it is a bigger plant producing more fruit by mass.

Assuming all the plant residues are returned to the soil, the amount of fert you need to replace for the next crop is loosely proportionate to the mass of the harvest... because you took some nutrients out of the cycle with the harvest and transported them away.
Click to expand...

Whiskers,

When I grew strawbs I grew heaps, but yes some were not as big as they could have been. Remember carting them up to EDEN NSW in a car fridge in layers at xmas time to have with xmas pud. The fowl manure was recommended in a govt pamphlet so what you say is interesting.

You say tomatoes like more fert so what do you recommend. I just use worm castings (worms I use to catch trout on trout opening season). If I remember which is not often, I mix in cow manure to the soil a few months before the seedlings go in.

Besides an occasional spray with fertilizer is their anything else I can feed them with ?
 
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