Topic: starberries

[brownthumb2]

straw berries question again  while chatting to a neighbouring allotmenteer I explained how I was making a new strawberrie bed   he said his dad had berries in the same place for years   My question is do any one else leave their berries in the same place year after year  and how long have they been left in  ?

[johhnyco15]

i rotate mine in a three year cycle so no row is more than 3 years old hope this helps

[Elfeda]

I would leave mine in the same place for several years, but I do keep removing/replacing runners . So If you keep one new runner, remove one old plant. then it will not be overcrowded and also refreshed on it's own.

[Tee Gee]

I have used the same bed for twenty years or more but I remove a third of the plants each year and replace them with new runners.

This way I can improve the soil prior to planting the new runners, so effectively I have a new bed each year

I also find second and third year plants produce the best fruit.

So effectively I renew my strawberry bed every three years, yet  still have second and third years plants at all times.

Oddly enough I have just moved to a new bed a month ago but again I have still kept the 2-1 ratio  by planting a third of it with new runners and two thirds with established plants.

I am hoping to get a similar crop to that that I have been getting for the past twenty years.

Fingers xxxxxxx

[strawberry1]

I got rid of my allotment strawberry beds this summer, I could not be doing with all that bending down. I used to have a table system on a gravelled area at home, which I removed when I got vine weavil two years ago. This year I saw a strawberry plant on the gravel,  must have come from a seed and now I have 8 runners on the gravel. I will be leaving them, just out of interest. It will be amazing if they produce fruit. Hardy plants tbh