Strawberries
Near Dunn, North Carolina

by Dana Dudley
Created:  April 21, 2011

 

 

Apr 8, 2010

 

This was taken last year. It is a makeshift planter box using old timber from an old outbuilding so I could recycle the wood.
When I placed the tender organic strawberries into the glyphosate herbicide treated soil, most of the plants perished within a short time frame - maybe a week or less.
Out of the total 30 plants, there were 15 for the control group, and 15 for the ORMUS.

 

 

May 21, 2010



As you can see, the glyphosate had an impact on the plants. They never seemed to be able to thrive.
Every time a new set of leaf brackets appeared, the old ones died. I ended up with 3 control, and 4 of our ORMUS at the end of the first month.

 

 

You can tell ours from the other plants. They stand taller and have lots of leaf brackets.

 

 

May 25, 2010

 

 

This is one of the control plants. Not looking too good either.

 

 

Here is one of the ORMUS strawberry plants. It is very healthy, and it has runners which are already developing brackets of leaves.

 

 

May 29, 2010

 

 

The control plants are having problems surviving. I did not change the soil or add anything to either side at this point. I wanted to see about plant stress. Here is my result.

 

 

This is only a few days later. Even the runners are getting their own runners now! This is an ORMUS plant, one of the 4 which survived.
I have added compost to this side only now. The 3 remaining control plants did not get any compost.

 

 

Jun 30, 2010

 

This is the ORMUS plants a month later. Everything is growing and lots of the runners now have grown much larger too.  

 

 

This is the same sorry pitiful plant in the control. Nothing seems to be happening. I even added compost to see if that would improve the chances of survival. Not fairing too well.

 

 

Jul 9, 2010

 

 

Here are the 3 control plants on July 9th. I took the picture after watering the compost and soil so the plants will show up better in the pictures.

 

 

These are the 4 ORMUS plants at the same time. They have flourished! Runners abound, and the vibrant growth is very evident!

 

Jul 12, 2010

 

The insects seem to adore the plants in the control.
They had nothing added other than compost (I was afraid I would lose all the control plants for about 2 weeks of the drought - they kept passing off the new growth.
The leaves are chewed. This is something I see a lot of in the locations which use synthetic fertilizers.

 

Thought you would enjoy seeing the difference ORMUS is making on the new planter box. Those are the $3. solar lights you can buy at any Wal-Mart for your size comparisons.

 

Amazing what the 4 ORMUS plants have done!

 

 

Jul 22, 2010

 

Here is the planter in its entirety. The left side is the control group of 3 plants which survived. The right side is the 4 ORMUS plants which also survived (not to mention thrived).

 

 

Finally! Looks like this one is going to make it after all! It will never catch up to our plants, that is very evident! But it has survived!

 

 

Our plants on the other hand are flourishing and are taking over the entire planter box now.

 

 

Aug 15, 2010

 

 

Here are a total of 7 plants. Three on the control side. Four on the ORMUS side. Which would you rather grow?

 

Aug 23, 2010

 

August 23rd, a week later. Now they are moving into the other side of the planter box!

 

 

Aug 29, 2010


 
August 29th! Our 4 plants look like many plants!

 

 

Oct 18, 2010

 

 

October 18th! Now the entire planter box is covered with our ORMUS plants, and the 3 small control plants are in the midst of them!
(I marked them so I can identify them.) This year they have NO BLOSSOMS!

 

 

The 4 ORMUS plants have not only grown well, they have taken the entire box, and are spilling on the ground with luxurious growth!

 

 

Feb 24, 2011

 

 

Here we are in 2011 at the end of February. I have just removed the pine needles which I used for a mulch for the entire box. I see the new blueberry plants have a few buds appearing.

 

Apr 3, 2011

 

April 3rd, a little over 5 weeks later. Not one blossom on any of the control group, sadly.

 

 

Apr 6, 2011

 

April 6th measurements of a leaf bracket.

 

Apr 9, 2011

 

 

April 9th view of the blossoms appearing on our ORMUS plants.

 

 

Apr 15, 2011

 

 

Blossoms everywhere, even falling into the grass! The ORMUS is amazing! I water with a half dozen tablespoons per gallon.
Now I wait to eat strawberries! Not to forget to mention I will be busy transplanting into some new boxes coming soon!

 

Apr 21, 2011



This was taken today April 21st so you can see how the ORMUS causes the plant's energy fields to go into hyper production.
 Look at these clusters of berries just beginning to mature. I made the ORMUS and used about a half dozen tablespoons per gallon and watered the soil. This is the result.

 

 

Runners are appearing everywhere now, along with the new blossoms and plenty of berries.

 

 

The strawberries are just beginning to mature. I had mulched with pine needles for the winter, and had no plastic covering over the planter box or anything else.
Just the bare elements and normal cold winter weather. I will be watering with ORMUS again while they are still developing before I harvest the rewards of hard work - my perspiration last year!

 

 

Some of the berries are very small yet, but with the sun in the last two weeks, some are turning red even before fully getting to a nice size.
They are full of flavor. All these plants are now about a year old, since I planted them as bare root strawberries in a control group in one box last spring,
as you will see in some of the other pictures in this file so you can see the actual difference this is making.

 

 

The runners are thick and healthy, and were dropping out of the box until I cut them out yesterday since I don't want them invading the grassy areas
 I will be setting down some one gallon size water jugs later today which I have cut apart and left handles on, then filled with organic soil to let the runners go into them for easy transplanting shortly.

 

 

Here is a closer shot (sorry, not the clearest) just so you can see the runners starting.

 

 

As most people now know, we just had major tornado clusters this weekend. I am right in the middle of the area affected.
The hail came very fast, and did a great deal of damage to the strawberry leaves, as you can tell.

 

 

Here is one of the leaves so you can see how damaged the leaves are now. The tornado didn't appear to damage the blossoms.

 

 

The tornado damage and winds were fast and furious, and the winds were between 120 to 140 miles per hour according to the weather channels and most meteorologists.
The plants seem to be recovering quickly, since that happened only 4 days ago.

 

 

New leaves under the larger ones appear to be undamaged and growing vigorously.

 

 

Every place I look, there are new blossoms and berries forming.

 

 

I am not a horticulturist, but a novice who adores gardening and eating the rewards. Imagine someone who knows this as a career and what they could accomplish for the planet!

 

 

A month or so away from berries here (I may have learned I should cover them all winter with plastic to keep more heat in the soil.)
But that error of mine hasn't appeared to stop the berry production! They are falling outside the planter box now!

 

 

They vary in height and size, and all have blossoms and berries on them.

 

 

Too many for one planter box, that is already very evident to me, so it is back to the saw, and I will be adding some more areas for strawberries.

 

 

I tried to get a picture so you could see all the way to the dirt, but it isn't easy to find bare spots now.