MT recommended this strawberry in another post and rather than hijack that thread, I decided to start another.
I have expansionist plans for my strawberry bed; so that I have strawberries from the plot for as long as possible. I salvaged about 30 plants last year ( variety unkown) and was rewarded with yummy strawbs in June...but they had stopped producing by the end of that month :'(
I'm thinking about adding 10 florence, 10 aromel, which should keep us going through July and maybe August.
But....tell me more about Symphony - when does it fruit? are the fruits large/small? and is 10 a good number of each variety or do I need more??
TIA
Quote; I have expansionist plans for my strawberry bed; so that I have strawberries from the plot for as long as possible.
Sorry I can't help you with the variety 'Symphony' but if I may I would like to give you a tip for getting the best out of your strawberry bed.
As you may know it is best to replace your plants every three years let me tell you how I do mine.
Firstly I divide my bed into three.(see picture)
In area 1(foreground) I have first year plants which I nurture.
In area 2 I have 2nd year plants its these that generally give me the best crop.
In area 3 I have third year plants which I usually perform quite well. At the end of the season I dump these plants, not in the compost heap in case they are virused.
Each year I mark the plants in my entire bed which performed best, it is these plants that I take my runners from.
When rooted I put them in the area I removed the third year plants from.
Prior to planting them out I dig and manure this area before planting out as this is the only conditioning this part of the bed will get for another three years.
Unless I am changing a variety I don't need to buy plants for many years.
I have added a picture of fruit I got from a bonus offer of 6 plants and I was quite impressed. The variety is 'Maxim'
(http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Web%20pics/Strawb%20bed%201.JPG)
(http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Web%20pics/Strawb%202a.JPG)
Tee Gee - thanks for the tips. I like the idea of a 3 year rotation on the bed - how often do you move the whole bed to a different area on the plot?
I have heard about Maxim but wondered if taste was sacrificed for size?
Anyone have any tips/comment about the Symphony variety??
Funny enough, have grown both Maxim and Symphony. Dont get the size of Maxim that TeeGee does, but they are still pretty good, and the flavour seems fine.
The Symphony however seem prone to fungal diseases, and as I don't use chemicals, thats a pain. The taste is good though. So the Symphony are going, and will concentrate on the Maxim which have done me well for about 5 years.
Also grow Bolero, they are pretty good, but smaller.
Right then, I will stick with original plan for Florence and Aromel and try to find a bit more space (that really means dig more space ;D) for some Maxim.
Quote; how often do you move the whole bed to a different area on the plot?
In the case of the one in the picture I have never moved this and I think it has been in place for around10 years now.
I think I will only ever move it if the ground becomes contaminated in some way.
As I mentioned in my previous post I treat/improve the soil every three years in terms of digging & humus plus each year I top dress with a general fertiliser.
Meaning; my method of aftercare seems to work.
Just a thought if you are going to use the 'three section' method how are you going to keep three or more varieties in rotation? To my mind three varieties = nine areas.
I suppose (looking at my picture) one row can be dedicated to a variety. In my case I have three rows by six in each area, you can have one row of six in each area.
I'll leave you to figure that one out ;)