The Secret behind Early season Super Sweet Sussex Strawberries

After speaking with one of our expert Sussex berry growers about the many varieties of strawberries they grow, his in depth knowledge of the amount of intrinsic factors that affect the sweetness was incredible.

The temperature of 15’c has popped up a few times recently… when talking about honey and our spring bees, I am told that 15’c is the temperature at which flowers start to produce nectar aswell as pollen (it is the nectar that they make the honey from)..

When also speaking to Nick, our strawberry grower, he informs me that it is at night time temperatures of 15’c that strawberry plants will start to send sugars that they have stored in the fruit during the day, into the leaves to help them respire over night. It is therefore paramount that the crop is being picked at the correct time of day and that the plant is having enough canopy reduction (leaf removing) to ensure that there is more leaves than there is fruits.

It is this reason that occasionally there maybe a less sweet strawberry in a punnet as every plant is different.