Strawberry growing season has been berry unusual

Strawberries could be on the market any day now with an unusually mild winter boosting growth of berry bushes, but not all is red and rosy.

Gala Berry managing director Lynda Ashby says Gala Berry has been picking its strawberries for two weeks already but a rainy August has been challenging.

“July was filled with warm winter sun and a lot of light hours, but in August the weather gods decided to rain and the cold weather has slowed down the formation from fruit to flower.”

At this point, Lynda can only wait to see if the sun will return, but typically production gets into full bloom around October.

“We will go into seven-day-a-week production with strawberries ripening every day and we usually hire up to 40 people locally to help with the picking.”

Picking for the public is also available from Boxing Day and makes for a fun day out for families in the fields.

In December, strawberries are perfect for freezing and then putting in to smoothies because at that time the sugar content will be at its highest.

Charlies Gelato owner Andrew Cole says that as a smaller grower, with just 28,000 strawberry plants, they have been fortunate enough to be able to grow them all under cover, protected from the August rain.

“In July, we had an incredible bloom, and we spent a lot of time trimming the flowers off because they would never ripen in the winter sun,” he says.

“You want the plant to put its energy into growing the root system.”

The recent cold weeks have encouraged root rot as well as aphids, which has presented challenges.

“Strawberries are quite an attacked species. We have been spraying with organic vinegar and baking soda to protect them.”

Andrew expects Charlies will be picking strawberries from this weekend, September 20, and will also change to summer opening hours.

Andrew says they quickly sell out of the strawberries sold at the gate each day because they only pick the ripest fruit.