It was outside, but it put it inside the house, like my grandpa does with his strawberry plants, but the problem with the leaves remains.

Never heard of bringing strawberries indoors in winter. They are totally hardy and should be out in the garden, dormant, not trying to grow in sub optimal conditions ie too warm, too dark and dependent on you for water. Can you ask your grandpa what his technique is?

I guess my grandpa was afraid the strawberry plants were burn by the cold, but I think the soil is the main problem. He has different strawberry species on the same soil, some are beautiful and already giving fruit, and others die... I guess different species react in different ways to the same soil.

Should I put it outside, with direct sunlight? (My grandpa does that and brings them inside at night).

These are extremely hardy outdoor plants!! They can take extreme winter cold - far below what you would ever encounter in Portugal!!

Yes, these need to be outdoors exposed to the weather and sunlight. And leave them there - do not bring in at night. If they were mine, I'd plant in the ground as I think they grow best that way. But many do grow them in containers as well.

This plant is in an apartment, so I can't put it in the ground :/

Thank you!

Why are you asking people in the United States for advice, when you have a grandfather who is local?

my thought are wrong soil, no drainage, wet roots.

The main problem is that it's indoors. You said it was outside before so we assumed you had a garden. Do you have a balcony?

Jim, quite possibly the OP doesn't realise that most, but not all, posters are US based. There's nothing on the site that says so and there are posters from other places. Me for example. But I agree. Ask grandpa, although his method does seem odd.

Dear Jim,

Of course I already asked my grandpa, he only does that because he thinks the strawberries suffer with cold weather and he is 91 years old, he does nothing all day so he has free time to carry the plants inside and outside everyday. He knows about strawberries as much as I do.

I tried to ask advice from an owner of a big plant store here, and he couldn't help me. I asked on the stores specialized on gardening, nothing. I looked online, there is not much information in portuguese and then I started looking in english. The information is too specific for my knowledge of plants.

So..I decided to look for foruns about gardening in portuguese. Guess what: nothing. And THEN I looked in english and BAM, lots of them, so I decided to seek help in one ore two.

I don't know where are you from but I guess some of you could help me, since I can speak your language and I couldn't find any helpful information in my language, I thought I could give it a try.

So Jim, if I was able to get help from my grandpa, do you think I would do all of the above just for fun?

Apart from that, thanks for your advice.

Floral_uk, the plant is in my broyfriends apartment, in a balcony. :) I have a garden in my parents house, they too have strawberries with the same problem, but they are in containers in a balcony (there are a lot of stray cats here and they like to use people's gardens as a bathroom).

Sorry for long answer and also for some bad english. I try my best!

Thank you :) love to talk to people from other places, it makes us grow and is amazing! Kisses from Portugal.

guidance, unfortunately, I find many first time posters are looking for more social interaction than information they could glean on their own. I hope you find what you want: information or forum traffic. I would not be using the planting mix you are using, my container strawberries are grown in a mix of sandy loam and mushroom compost. Mushroom compost is used growning media used for growning commercial mushrooms.

What are you using for soil?

Guidap, anything written for a U.K. audience would be applicable to your strawberries. You'd just have to remember that everything would happen a bit earlier in your climate. I also found this written by a Brit living in Portugal. https://pigletinportugal.com/2018/01/28/growing-strawberries-in-january/#more-10058

Jim,

Thank you! The soil I'm using says it is an herbaceous peat (if it is wrong, it is Google translator fault) with vegetable fiber, fertilizer and a pH corrector. I would like to change the soil but it was changed 3 times in a few weeks and I'm afraid it will harm the plant even more.

Never heard of using a mix of sandy loam (if loam is what I think, there are a few types like green - used for face masks for example - white, etc.). Don't know if it is a good idea to change it now, it is so weak.

The other strawberry plant is in the same soil (other container) and they are great! (But is a different specie).

Floral_uk,

Thank you! I saw the link and I will read it carefully to look for advice and try what he did (if the plant doesn't die in the meantime).

guidap, possibly you are mixing up loam and clay? Loam is a word never used for anything other than a soil type. Never for a face mask! I honestly don't think the soil is your problem. It looks like a run of the mill potting mix.

It shouldn't be in the house (which is quite a different environment from a greenhouse or a polytunnel) and you may be over-watering.

Now that you said the word clay, it makes more sense. Google translated loam to a word that means clay in portuguese.

When I saw the leaves become brown, I thought it was lack of water, but maybe it is the other way around.. as you say it might be too much water. I will leave it outside and look for updates everyday.

Hope it grows new leaves soon. I know it is only a strawberry plant, but this is special because it is my uncle's production and he lives 600km away from me!

I'll do my best to keep it alive

Hi again, these photos are not my strawberry plant, but are the ones on my parent's house. Mine started to look like this before almost died (now it looks almost dead).

Maybe this could give you more information about what is happening.

What are you watering with? Does the water contain any salts? Are you fertilising?

I was about to remark that it looks like a watering issue to me as well.

Just tap water. These plants from my parent's house were in the rain a little bit (but they were already like this before the rain). The other plants do well on tap water.

It sound to me as if you bring in at night because the temperature is cold enough to make the strawberries die back. If they die back you would not have strawberries to eat all year. Is this true? At any rate, it does look like a watering problem. I know they are delicate, but I would still, hold plant by the leaves and gently remove from soil, don't pull them out, use other hand to dislodge them. Then check the bottom of you container, I suspect you will find too much water down there. Repot the berry plants in fresh damp soil and see how it does. If it is cold at night, there is no reason why you cant bring them in then place in the sun in the morning. Let us know how it is working for you.

FWIW, it looks like too little water to me rather than too much. And in Portugal, I see no need to ever bring these indoors....it just doesn't get cold enough to justify that.

Absolutely, it's not going to be too cold for strawberries in Portugal. They need to be outside. They'll go dormant but that's normal and there's no risk of losing the crop.

Hi everyone, the plant still looks like it is dead, but I have good news: my uncle was sad because we couldn't keep the plants so he sent some more so we could try again!

Now I will do as I did on the other strwberry plant (the other specie, the good one): I will put some rocks on the bottom of the container to drain out the excess off water (I did not put in these because I did not have rocks near my boyfriend's house and I forgot to bring them from my parents' house).

Regarding the dying plant, I will do what citytransplant(zone5) told me. Now that I have new plants to work on, I can try to change the soil of this one.

I will keep you updated, thank you!

Don't bother with the rocks. That's an old but debunked theory. It doesn't improve drainage. And your plants don't look dead at all. They look a bit miserable but definitely not dead. Apart from the brown rims around the leaves they look just like strawberries normally look in winter. Do not bring them in at night. It's totally unnecessary and could be detrimental if it forces the plants out of dormancy too soon.

Floral_uk, the last photos are from my parent's strawberry plants. The one who looks dead is the one on the first photo from the post. Later I will update a photo of how it looks now and it really looks dead. It is worse than it was on that photo.

Don't worry. The first one isn't dead either.

Floral_uk, here is a photo of how the first plant looks now:

Not looking too good...it's as dry as a bone. And is it still indoors? I'd water it, put it outside and forget about it for a while. If you don't get any rain keep it watered. I honestly don't know how it got it into that state because they're very hardy and trouble free plants. Maybe a victim of too much 'care'.

No, I put it outside just a day or two after I created this post. It rained a day or two. I guess it was the little bugs it had on the beginning, they all had it, and we used a spray specific for that but maybe it was too hard on it. After the bugs disappeared, these 3 little leaves were born, but soon they became brown on the edges and ended up like this.

Guess I am not going to save this little one, but let's see on spring how it does. The days are getting longer and the temperature is good, not too cold, and maybe next month it will start raining again.

I've just run quickly back over the thread and I don't see any mention of bugs or spray. That would have been useful to know because when I asked about water and fertiliser I was wondering about the burnt looking leaves. The spray could well have been the culprit. Outdoors in winter your strawberry would have been unlikely to suffer an infestation. Indoors where it's warm, there is no wind or rain and no predators. So you're more likely to meet bug trouble. Aphids, for example, thrive it inside and they'll sometimes attack plants they don't usually bother because they don't have much choice.

You are right, I'm sorry, at the same time I was talking about this on another forum and I talked about the bugs there, not here, my bad.

By the time they had the bugs (almost transparent, slightly green, very tiny), the leaves were already turning brown on the edges, and the plant was always outside on the beginning. But yes, maybe the spray was too hard on it, but when I saw new leaves, I thought it was ok.

These are the little bugs that appeared on my sick strawberry plant (the one on the photo is a good one, from other species). How can I treat these?

Those are aphids. In my experience outdoor strawberries don't get them. The answer is the same. These are hardy plants for the garden, not inside.

Yes but this specific strawberry plant was never inside, and the other one who got aphids too, got them when it was outside.