Greetings to all fellow farmers and gardeners here on hive! Most especially here 
It's been a while since I posted here about my strawberry on our backyard and right now I'm going to share an updates on how are my strawberry doing. The weather is better than yesterday since the sun is shining without drizzling. So I went out and visited my plants in the backyard and the strawberries caught my attention.
Honestly, I feel a little sad as I write this because my strawberries are no longer in the best condition. The continuous rain we have been experiencing lately and for more than a month has taken a toll on them. It was only today that the sun finally came out, but unfortunately, the damage on my strawberries caused by the long rainy season is already very noticeable and severe.
Because of the nonstop rain, our strawberries were exposed to too much moisture and a cold weather. Some of them ended up soaking in rainwater for long periods, which caused stress to the plants that destroy the flowers too. To help them, I did my best to find ways to prevent them from getting overly wet but still the same. Even though the plants are still producing flowers, the fruits that develop from them are small and some are rotten immediately even though they are not yet ripen. In some cases, the stems holding the fruits are already wilting even though the strawberries are not yet ripe. There are also flowers that failed to turn into fruits because they were already damaged early while they were blooming.
The strawberry leaves are slowly deteriorating as well. They are no longer as green, healthy, and lush as they were in my previous post. On top of that, insects have started attacking both the leaves and the fruits. There was one strawberry that looked really promising, but it was already damaged by insects, leaving small holes on the fruit. Seeing this was quite disheartening and pitiful. But I know they will recover soon if the weather goes back to its sunny day.
We already applied fertilizer in hopes that the plants will recover so soon. More than anything, I want them to survive and regain their strength and greener lives because my children really love strawberries. Sometimes they are always asking if there is a ready to harvest fruits but when I look into it, there is none. We were all excited and hopeful for a better harvest but sadly, we only get one or two fruits at a time, and even those are not always in good condition.
If only the weather had been kinder, I’m sure our strawberry plants would have produced plenty and healthy fruits one after another. Still, we remain hopeful that we can harvest more and beautiful strawberries after a month. Gardening always teaches us on how to be patience, acceptance, and determination. That's all for now, and these are the simple updates about our small strawberry plants, growing and struggling, yet still trying their best here in our backyard.
Thank you so much for reading my simple blog, see you on my next farming/gardening blog. Please stay safe and happy holidays! Mabuhay!