Hello Strawberry!

Who could resist strawberries? With its red, plump and heart-shaped fruit; well, better ask the birds and the children and me too! For me its a delight to see those fruits and with the taste and smell, it's irresistible. One thing that makes that fruit irresistible to me is honestly because it's seldom for me to eat strawberries before. Strawberries were grown only in cool places. Here in Philippines it is grown in La Trinidad, Benguet. The place is in high altitude with cool climate. That's 6 hrs commute from Manila that's why its seldom to have specially when it is not strawberry season plus I know that it has a short shelf life. Strawberries have short shelf life because the cell wall of the fruit start to disintegrate when it is ripe releasing its aroma along the process. You can have any time it but it's quite expensive compared to other fruits. I don't know any places in our country other than La Trinidad where it is planted and cultivated commercially.

Ever since, I already love that fruit. I never imagined growing it, it never came to my mind but something happened that makes me love the fruit and love growing it also.

 It started last year when we went to Baguio City, Philippines. One of our "must" visit place was the Strawberry Farm in La Trinidad.

On our third day stay in the place we went to the farm and with all the excitement that at last we could hand picked the fruits from the plant itself. But, Alas! when we reached the farm no strawberry to be picked, one farmer said it is not strawberry season. My wife was disappointed that time including me.




Some farmers that time were planting plugs of strawberry so it must be planting season not harvest time. Its a funny experience a "Reality vs. Expectation" scenario. To lighten up the disappointment we just bought Strawberry flavored Taho. Then, I realized why not try to buy strawberry plug and bring it home. I know its a crazy idea thinking I would be carrying live plant, it should be unscathed until we reached home, we will be commuting, and  no way to be sure if I could make it grow.

But then, so I did bought a plugs from a farmer and luckily she handed me two plugs. Those were just excess plugs of that farmer. The farmer was kind she told me that it will grow well, even I'm in doubt at that time I'm still thankful for the encouragement. I ask few tip on how to grow it and it took 15 mins for such conversation in the middle of the farm under full sunshine. wow! that must be enough tips.

Only one plug survived. Of course what would I expect. The images above was taken last August 2013 one month after planting. I've taken it inside since there was a typhoon that time and its the only one left so i need to take care of it. That was planted on crushed clay pot beside it were chives. It one of the tips that the farmer advised to me that those plants don't like heavy rains and strong wind.

The runners at the left were the successful propagation of the only one remaining plug.


Strawberry plug is term used for strawberry tips that has already roots and ready for planting.
Runner  is a daughter plant at the end of stolon, a new strawberry tip.



I'm not really sure what kind of strawberry cultivars that I bought and grown. As far as I know La Trinidad strawberries propagate at least 3 varieties known as Sweet Charlie, Festival and Shoga Varieties. It might be festival base on fruit shape but again I'm not sure, just a wild guess.

A runner and its delicate roots almost touching to grow media and soon it would be another plant.

A runner and a mother plant.

The white shards are crushed eggshell supposedly used as snail repellent. Not sure if it work but I guess it does since I totally eradicated all of the snail with the use of other mechanical pest control including handpicking.



My aquaponics setup using drip irrigation technique.Some pot I used soil and most of them I used crushed clay pot. I used urethane tube with holes on it with identical spacing where the water is allowed to flow. The pots are placed on iron sheet box that I personally made using crude tools and rivets as you can see it wasn't planned and not finely made.Anyway, it does its job perfectly. It serves as a collecting pan and drainage of water back to the fish tank (blue barrel not shown).

Now I've managed to propagate my strawberries up to 12 plants with very scarce resources and also enjoying the fruits in 3 fruiting seasons not bad for a very limited space that I have. The image below was the first ever flower. Its very precious and to me it's like a badge. A badge that I've made up to that point. Cheers!

Not that I successfully propagated it,it means I didn't encounter problems, there are plenty and for sure more to come.. Especially I don't have measuring apparatus like ph meter I hope I could buy soon before things go beyond control.

My next post would be more details of strawberry propagation in aquaponics,its flowers and of course fruits and problems encountered. I'll try also to post more images on my whole aquaponics setup.

Such a Long Time....

  It has been a very long time that passed and I didn't noticed it and almost forgot I have this blog. But better late than never. I have a few pictures to share on what happened from almost 2 years of dormancy.

All the images in this post were taken last November 2012 and february 2013.

After 4 month from planting the mung beans (monggo) starts to flower.

The picture on the left shows a mung plant having a pods. The tomatoes were just starting to peak up.

Can you spot the cat? :)

The barrel for fishes were put inside the fence because children (our neighbors) are very curious and wanting to catch the fishes inside the blue barrel. Of course my fishes at that time were shubunkin and koi, its irresistible to childs eyes so better put it inside before they'll kill the fishes.

When the mung plants reach its unproductive stage. I decided
to removed it to give way to other plant. The ginger that I've bought at the market have also survived even if it was covered by the lush of mung leaves.

I also planted cabbage but only one grows and then die.

 A better look at the fruits.



































At last some of the first batch of  fruits were turning ripe. I could eat the fruits. I prepared it as an appetizer. At that moment I felt that those fruits were the best of all tomatoes. No wonder because I've waited it for quite some time and finally I have the produce.



Though I had managed to make the tomatoes bear fruits and consume the produce. The plant were not that lucky. It was infested by snails. They were tiny snails, their size were comparable to rice grain and they were somehow translucent yellow. Not only the tomatoes but including the cabbage. Before I managed to eradicate , damage has been done and the 3 tomato plants wilt while still bearing 30 tomatoes all are still green. The cabbage leaves were also eaten every night. I was wondering first why the leaves have holes and some only the stalks were left but I couldn't find any caterpillar. Its the snail trail. They are very voracious little creatures. It was a very sad experience to see all the tomato plants die.  I learned a lesson in that experience, next time if you see impending problem better find solution and correct the problem before it would escalate and turns into disaster.

Next post will be a new setup.. also a new set of plants.

A Garden and Pond in Barrel