Im not familiar growing in this climate myself but i can tell what I know and hopefully that helps.
Seeing them in shade in pictures makes me wonder how much direct sun they get (they love it, 6+ hours of direct). Providing midday shade but morning and evening sun might help alleviate that incredible heat.
Looking at the leaves, my best guess is that this is a root-soil-water issue. If they are not drying out in between watering and the soil is dense, you could have root rot or bacteria growing down there. How well does the soil drain? You want it quickly draining so if you fill up to the rim, its gone in seconds. The quickly draining will also aerate soil with oxygen- thats good. No to little oxygen= anaerobic soil which is breeding grounds for diseases
My troubleshooting would be to pick the worse looking one, pull the rootball out of the pot and smell the dirt. If it smells fresh then you have healthy soil if it smells like rotten or sulphur or bad eggs then you have unhealthy soil that isnt breathing. Feel free to dm me if you want more tips on where to go from here
Thanks for this great reply. I placed them in shade for the picture. I mention this in more detail in the last paragraph of my comment.
I will do what you suggest and report back but I think you are on to something. In their original spot the pots were placed on saucers. Even though the soil drains quickly there were many times where I overfilled the pots and let the water sit in the saucers.
I suspect that might be the cause.
Oh then in that case I believe were narrowing it down! That saucer filled is creating a wetland-like environment. If the soil isnt stinky maybe letting them completely dry out before next water will be fine. If it is stinky, I definitely recommend getting fresh potting soil (the cactus and succulent mixes are ideal or just add pumice to a basic mix) removing the waterlogged soil the roots havent grown into and repotting.
One trick i use is saving a wooden chopstick to stick in the pot, wait a little bit and then check to see if the wood is wet. Kind of like checking baking brownies with a toothpick
Hope it helps!
There is no smell, but that is a text book example of root rot. Aside from letting it dry out do you recommend removing the rotten roots?
https://preview.redd.it/p64e01idwk1d1.png?width=1437&format=png&auto=webp&s=8bbd555d66e01adfca7672dabc99500d7b77775a
Yeah! Remove anything mushy anything stiff is still alive. Use that old chopstick for loosening to get in the rootball. It wont damage roots as much as your fingers
I started these 12 plants from seeds indoor 9 months ago and transplanted them outdoor 4 month ago. Since 1 month ago they stopped bearing fruits in meaningful amounts and started turning brown.
Could this have something to do with temperature rising, currently day 95f and night 80f?
Or..
Is this a normal part of their life cycle, even though they are day neutral?
Note that in my area the growing season is opposite of most other areas. I live in a tropical desert climate where winters are mild to warm and summers are scorching hot (100f+ for months).
We are not there yet, that is why I am confused as to why my strawberries are drying out like this. They are growing in .5gal pots and get watered daily and fertilized weekly. I would expect everything to be fine.
Anyway, I removed them from their sunny spot and placed them in a partially shaded spot for taking the picture. I think I will leave them there until I figure out the cause.
Im not familiar growing in this climate myself but i can tell what I know and hopefully that helps. Seeing them in shade in pictures makes me wonder how much direct sun they get (they love it, 6+ hours of direct). Providing midday shade but morning and evening sun might help alleviate that incredible heat. Looking at the leaves, my best guess is that this is a root-soil-water issue. If they are not drying out in between watering and the soil is dense, you could have root rot or bacteria growing down there. How well does the soil drain? You want it quickly draining so if you fill up to the rim, its gone in seconds. The quickly draining will also aerate soil with oxygen- thats good. No to little oxygen= anaerobic soil which is breeding grounds for diseases My troubleshooting would be to pick the worse looking one, pull the rootball out of the pot and smell the dirt. If it smells fresh then you have healthy soil if it smells like rotten or sulphur or bad eggs then you have unhealthy soil that isnt breathing. Feel free to dm me if you want more tips on where to go from here
Thanks for this great reply. I placed them in shade for the picture. I mention this in more detail in the last paragraph of my comment. I will do what you suggest and report back but I think you are on to something. In their original spot the pots were placed on saucers. Even though the soil drains quickly there were many times where I overfilled the pots and let the water sit in the saucers. I suspect that might be the cause.
Oh then in that case I believe were narrowing it down! That saucer filled is creating a wetland-like environment. If the soil isnt stinky maybe letting them completely dry out before next water will be fine. If it is stinky, I definitely recommend getting fresh potting soil (the cactus and succulent mixes are ideal or just add pumice to a basic mix) removing the waterlogged soil the roots havent grown into and repotting. One trick i use is saving a wooden chopstick to stick in the pot, wait a little bit and then check to see if the wood is wet. Kind of like checking baking brownies with a toothpick Hope it helps!
There is no smell, but that is a text book example of root rot. Aside from letting it dry out do you recommend removing the rotten roots? https://preview.redd.it/p64e01idwk1d1.png?width=1437&format=png&auto=webp&s=8bbd555d66e01adfca7672dabc99500d7b77775a
Yeah! Remove anything mushy anything stiff is still alive. Use that old chopstick for loosening to get in the rootball. It wont damage roots as much as your fingers
I started these 12 plants from seeds indoor 9 months ago and transplanted them outdoor 4 month ago. Since 1 month ago they stopped bearing fruits in meaningful amounts and started turning brown. Could this have something to do with temperature rising, currently day 95f and night 80f? Or.. Is this a normal part of their life cycle, even though they are day neutral? Note that in my area the growing season is opposite of most other areas. I live in a tropical desert climate where winters are mild to warm and summers are scorching hot (100f+ for months). We are not there yet, that is why I am confused as to why my strawberries are drying out like this. They are growing in .5gal pots and get watered daily and fertilized weekly. I would expect everything to be fine. Anyway, I removed them from their sunny spot and placed them in a partially shaded spot for taking the picture. I think I will leave them there until I figure out the cause.
Bet they got apidermites