Strawberries are small, so they are easy to treat as an easy balcony plant. In Samsun the real balance is keeping the roots from drying out without leaving ripe fruit on a wet surface for days.
An hour or two of sun may not give the crop you expect
Strawberries flower and fruit better in strong light. A balcony can look bright and still get only one or two hours of direct sun, and then the expected yield may not appear. Noting the sun hours for one day is a good start.
Burying the crown and leaving roots exposed are both risks
Planting the crown too deep can raise the risk of rot; leaving the roots exposed is also wrong. Use the plant’s natural level in its nursery pot as the reference.
Keep fruit off wet mix
Clean straw-like mulch, or another suitable surface, can stop fruit sitting directly on wet mix. Picking ripe and damaged fruit promptly after rain reduces disease pressure.
Lots of flowers and little fruit is not one cause
If there are many flowers but little fruit, look at light, weather, pollination and variety together. It is easy to blame one factor, but most balcony problems are several conditions at once.
Runners can split this season’s fruiting energy
Strawberries make new plants on runners. If you want fruit this season, a large number of runners can divide the plant’s energy; if you want new plants, you can root a few healthy runners in a controlled way.
