Dont know what happened there!

Nice one tim........I have been tryying to grow strawbs for a number of years now and i am slowly getting better at it!!! hahaha........here are a few things i have learnt the hard way....I too have grown the alpine ones because they stay white...so the birds dont eat them right?....here goes with what i have learnt
1. Dont over water them.........everywhere i have read they say the plants can survive on 1 inch of water a week......they tend to be shallow rooting.....They dont like having wet leaves either........what i found were symptoms of over watering
a) small tough fruit b) not sweet c) yellowing leaves with brown spots on them.
2.Space them apart at least 30 cm so air can circulate......use straw for strawbs to lie on........if in pots fruit can hang over the sides.
3.use organic feeds like seaweed/blood and bone/fish emulsion..................most fruit tastes better if fed organically.
4.Remove weeds from beds.
5.Pot up gradually in pots
6.water/feed from below in tray....that wway you dont wet the leaves or the fruit....if fruit stay wet for long periods they develop gundgy !!!
7.Dont feed while berries are ripening!...feed when berries are small.
8..Do not put ferts directly over the rootball.........put around the outer drip line and let the roots search out for the food.
9.Do not over feed.......occasionally a high nitrogen feed......you can also use yates flower and fruit.
10.Light waterings are better as roots are near surface....then feed with half strength solution....always make sure you water lightly before you water/feed to avoid burning roots.
           Its better to under water than over water and personally i prefer to grow in pots .....put organic dynamic lifter 1 inch below the surface(it stinks!) around the outside ring of the pot(away from the rootball)....that way every time they get water they get food..........i also use aa moisture meter and avoid them staying saturated.......if it rains.....that is the best water they can get(organic)....they will be greener for it.............Luckily for me....no birds eat them here but we get millions of snails!........
11.Dont pick to early!....the nitrogen feed can help the plants become stronger and fruits become bigger but potassium is important too.......wait for the strawbs to go dark red for optimum sweetness........net them with metal coat hanger cloche if birds are an issue....ants can drill holes too!.
12...In winter cut them down to just above their crowns.....covering them with straw until spring comes is an option too....they will be fine but expose them in late winter...
13.They like acid too....so a small amount of vinegar added to water sometimes can help..
14.....choose one way of feeding either the dynamic lifter under soil every 6 to 8 weeks or just liquid feed at half strength once a week when berries are small.
15.The more sun/heat the better....
16...If strawbs are typical of variety...are picked when deep red and have a small hollow cavity inside them and are sweet.....you have done a great  job!..I have 33 plants........so try to have at least 10 if its just for you ....25 at least for a family.....Good luck.

The advice to step up gradually in pot size makes perfect sense now you have explained it, and will work out cheaper in the short term too. The trees will also be much easier to move around if they are in in smaller pots for their early life.
This is good for most trees but especially citrus.......i killed many trees by making the mistake of putting in too big a pot for the size of the rootball.....what happens is the water around the outside of the pot never gets used by the plant....becomes stagnant and then the mix compacts .....the roots are then starved of oxygen and root rot sets in........a citrus only needs 24 to 48 hours of saturation before it becomes starved of oxygen.
A good general rule is to pot up a pot that is 2 to 4 inches bigger all round than the rootball.........tease the outside roots out to encourage the roots out and then here is the best bit.......put some fert one inch under the surface around the outside of the pot and not directly over the top of the rootball......then cover with mix......I use yates dynamic lifter for fruit.................this has several advantages.......1.It wont burn the roots because it doesnt go down over them....2 it encourages the roots to grow out in search of nutrients.......pot up each  later winter.......I do this with everything in pots eg strawberries/mango/15 different citrus/dwarf nectarine/paw paw..................its acts as a slow release fert and lasts 6 to 8 weeks......i only do when active growth is present........my strawbs grow better in pots than they do in the ground................for all my trees in pots ...i drill heaps of 8mm holes for drainage and then put onion sack mesh at bottom of pot to stop mix leaching out.

Thats good then..............all my other citrus have put out new growth (spring) but this tree has done nothing but the leaves look greener.

Bees and GA3 both will set fruit on a Page tree. The difference between the two is that bees actually pollinate the tree by cross pollinating the flowers with pollen from a neighboring tree. Therefore since pollen is used the Page fruit will have seeds.  GA3 also sets the bloom, but without pollen, and a non-pollinated flower will be seedless. - Millet

This stuff is quoted as containing natural growth promotants  eg gillberines(spelt wrong).........is this the same stuff as GA3?.......therefore foliar feed the blooms and get the same efffect?
http://www.easygrow.co.nz/soil-nutrients/188-nitrosol-1l.html

I was thinking of putting some sheep manure pellets in a jug of water and leaving for a week and then applying as a tonic to my container citrus........Could it pose any problems for my trees at all?
I used to do that with chicken manure for my tomatoes in the ground and they went nuts!........Thanks Jon

I always go for "Big is good" for any fruit.......if mandarins have a massive dimple in the middle/and the deeper it goes.......i will buy them.........my mrs will often pick mandarins in the store and the ones i pick always test better than what she picks.....I go for deep orange and big and especially US washington navel(they are the best orange thats imported to the southern hemisphere.)

okitsu with yellow leaves and still dormant.

Its not the edges millet......the whole leaf is rolled under so to speak.......and plenty of them.......they look dark green but rolled like a piece of ham on a coctail stick!.............I will try to take a pic.......leaves are not limp.

Thanks Guys......will give it a good flush then................I am probably a bit careful with my watering as i killed many trees in Auckland from wet feet but here come summer time.....it will be in the 30's C and sometimes 40C+........Top temp at the moment is 18-20C daytime.......cheers Jon

Hi Chas....Thanks for that......I havent been feeding it at all mind...I have had probs with slow release stuff on some of my other trees before......Does it need a good flush with pure water then?...Thanks