Equatorial Lowland Strawberry Project - Journal 27th Sept 2014

Looks good so far these Strawberry, finished making shades to the second and third growbed. The forth I left it temporarily vacant since I decide to put more plants within each growbed. This require me to let some of the plant to developed runners into young plants for the vacant growbed.

This time I use the electrical conduit PVC, they are cheaper and since the frame doesn't require much strength to hold those netting, it's okay.

Apart from direct intense sunlight it is good for heavy down pour which if not protected from will damage plants. Those that are not familiar with Equatorial weather, what we have here is either very hot sun with high humidity or very heavy rain which pour cats and dogs. Either way you're screwed.. if no shades provided as protection.

It's time for one of the runner to be cut off from the mother plants, it has form much needed roots and should be able to survive on its own.

Cut the umbilical as close as possible to the mother plants so that she don't waste much of her energy trying to repair what is not important anymore.

Make another cut as close to the young plant, this plant can be left where it is. However in this case I need the space for another fresh pot since there is another runner developing and I want that to form into new plant.

That new plant I transfer to a nursery growbed, here the water level is adjusted to be high so that any new plants will have a head start in this hot weather. Once it has formed more roots I can then move it to the 4th growbed as a permanent home for it.

The mother plant was in the old plastic pot, changing it to the slotted pot will ensure better growth as roots formation is found to be better if there are more exposure to air. Before letting it produce another plant, it is best to get the pot change.

It's a quickie job and not much stress on the plants since we are doing it the Aquaponics methods. This is one of the original plants from the highland, so it's good to see that it had survived the heat and even producing runners as above.

Back in its place, and one fresh pot standing by to catch the runner. I will need to trained it to be somewhere within the pot, using pots it is convenient to rotate the plant positioning the runner to a good landing. If this plant is directly in the growbed it will then be difficult to do.

One lone Strawberry is turning red, this is the one plant that I let it to fruit. Most of the flower I just clipped away but this plant I let it be. Just to see what developed from this experiment, 1st year plants need to get their roots strengthen first before they are allowed to flower other wise it may not be strong enough to bear fruit in the hot Equatorial climate.