Hi I bought this strawberry plant last week, and it was doing fine, seemed healthy. I forgot to water it one day and now it looks like this. So I panickedly gave it a ton of water as you can see. I really want this plant to work out, what should I do? Is it being over watered? Was that one missed watering what made it wilt?
More context I live in New Mexico with what I believe is an east facing window. So it gets a lot of morning sun. House is set to 72F if that’s important as well. And was being watered daily until I forgot. It hasn’t been fertilized at all and as indoor potting soil.
by El_Birdo_
9 Comments
Looks like it just needed water? But they vine and throw runners and the runners root and make new plants?
Give it time to soak up the water
That soil looks hydrophobic. Probably was too dry for a time before planting. Best would be to put it in a big tub for 20 minutes to soak up water from the top and the bottom. Then drain well
So couple things: strawberries are full sun plants, so if it’s not getting direct full sun for at least 8 hours, it’s most likely not getting enough sun to keep up with maintaining itself or push out new leaves let alone produce fruit with that little light.
Following that same line of thought: you’re watering it quite a lot for the relatively little sun it gets and there’s no way it’s using up all that water in just a day.
I would recommend looking at its roots and seeing if they have rotted, if they have, you will want to snip anything that is brown and mushy and sanitize with peroxide. Then replant in brighter sun and cut back watering to 2-3 times a week or when your top maybe inch of soil is dry.
If your roots are fine, then I agree with another comment the the soil is simply not soaking in the water and the plant actually has no water. In which case bottom water.
I hope this helps and your strawberry can make a recovery! I know they are quite finicky.
Do you have a cat?
You drowned it. In an ideal setting strawberries need to be hilled and the CROWN needs to be above ground. All this is to prevent drowning them. Oh, I’m not being critical, I planted 25 and got 12 to survive so I’m not perfect.
[https://strawberryplants.org/growing-strawberries/](https://strawberryplants.org/growing-strawberries/)
https://i.redd.it/dda4m6toc8gf1.gif
the newest leaves growing that are small or furthest on the vine are good to look at. if they’re dry or yellowing/browning then it’s not enough water. that really long stem that goes all the way to the right looks like it might be getting lighter the further to the right, and it looks like it doesn’t have as much fuzz, which means there’s not enough water for the entire plant and it’s all being taken by the most core parts of the plant, so the furthest pieces are starting to dry out. it’s possible that it needs even more water than you had been giving it, which is why skipping one day effected it like that. i wonder if this pot is big enough for it? and like others said maybe it would benefit from better soil
Just keep it watered and wait for the top inch or so of soil to go dry before watering it again. It should perk back up in a few hours with the water you gave it. At worst it might lose some of the bigger leaves and will grow new ones from the crown. Strawberries are extremely resilient.