If my strawberry plants are flowering now when will I get ripe fruit.

[pud1]

Just that really. I have about 30 plants I started with 4 2 years ago. They are red gauntlet verity. I am going on holiday next Thursday for 2 weeks and will be gutted if I come back to them all past there best. I am going to net them to stop the birds getting them. Not sure what the anti slug tactics are going to be. I have a dog so pellets are maybe a no go but he is at the MIL while we are away so might scatter some anyway. Would love to come back to ripe fruit but as I said I hope they are not all rotted by the time we get back. I can’t remember the time frames.

Pud - don't worry. You won't get ripe fruit until end June/July in my experience, depending on how much sun we get too. I've got flowers on mine at the moment.

Try putting straw around the plants to deter slugs and also stop them being in the soil when they start fruiting as there's nothing worse than picking a fruit that you discover has been nibbled! Fresh strawberries are delicious so enjoy them and enjoy your holiday too .

My red gauntlet variety have barely started flowering and it’s going to be another month before I see anything the resembles the shape of a strawberry! However my other strawberries (honeyoe variety sp?) is finished flowering and I’ve started to get one or two formed strawberry but it’ll be couple of weeks before they are even ripe

Bloody hell, the growing season is definitely longer here in Germany! I've got mostly Senga, and we've already had a handful of strawberries off them now.