For the last half year I have been highly neglectful of a small strawberry plant I got at Christmas. Over summer it had a few fruit (pinched out the majority) and sent out runners.
I'd secured some of the resulting new plants in pots but the runners continued! I'd wanted a few more from the parent and had about 8 but then it started going crazy and looking too Medusa-esque. Thinking it too massive a task, I kept putting off sorting it out.
So the air-borne leap-frogging clumps had to cope as best as they could on fresh air and water via the main parent. Two weeks ago I finally attacked the whole thing and the plants from the primary runners are doing really well (flowering already). The others are a little weaker (having a lot more trauma through neglect to recover from), plus I was a little scatty when planting them and have had an additional battle with their crowns below soil level!
Anyway, I'll pinch out all the buds once again and keep on caterpillar patrol. Speaking of which, there are these awful "fast" caterpillars - like the regular bright green ones that love basil and tomatoes, only a little darker, sometimes a bit of brown/yellow bits and possibly with small hairs. They look and behave like misbehaving, dirty versions of their bright green cousins. Any ideas on what they are? These renegades also create a webbing and stick leaves together.
Didn't receive the Five Colour Silverbeet as desired but instead I have Borghese tomatoes.
I can't wait to plant them out! And while on tomatoes, I found a packet of mixed heirloom tomato seeds in my bible case this evening. Mmmmmm, tomatoes!
I might start hothousing some seedlings from mid-winter onwards to extend the fruiting season. Much work to be done until then!
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