Is it better to plant in long rows or in blocks?
Since they will probably need netting from birds, I would suggest net size blocks.
Do them to suit your plot layout and to fit somewhere out of your planting rotation as they are there for a few years... and as Digeroo says to suit your netting..
I do mine like a number 5 on a dice. :wave:
Very corny kev... :toothy10: great way of describing the diamond shape..
I dug all mine out this year, what the birds couldn't get at throught the netting, the mice, squirrels, frogs, foxes and slugs finished off except for a few hidden ones that got mildew and rotted.
I reckon I spent about an hour of my time for each strawberry that I harvested - never, never again.
Seriously - grow something that gives a better satisfaction to work ratio and buy your stawberries from a shop.
Strange - I had a mean crop on my wettttttttt plot for a first timer plotter. I got 9 kilos off my 100 odd new first year plants. It just depends on individual conditions..
Mine did not do well this year a lot were mouldy. Just hoping next year will be better. Relalised I should have covered them with so much rain around. Certainly not giving up on them yet. My MIL always put her strawberries carefully in bunches into jam jars. I hope to reenact this with plastic bottles next year. I had some plants under bottle cloches to speed them up and they did very well, I just do not have enough 5 ltr sized to do the job. I will also try the 99p cloches next year as well.
I am sure the weather will be different next year.
Thanks for your responses.
As I have got some 10x4 pea and bean netting I'll plant to utilise it.
Quote from: cornykev on October 29, 2012, 17:44:07
I do mine like a number 5 on a dice. :wave:
me, too :toothy10:
I am not sure that pea and bean netting has a small enough gap between the mesh it is meant for growing peas etc up. Suggest you get garden netting, I like the stuff from 99p shop, though they sell if quite fast from some stores when they get it in the spring.
The five dots on a dice are known as a quincunx.
(
Useless knowledge expert talking)
I planted a couple of rows of White Lisbon spring onions in between my current row so no dice shape for me at present.
This reminds me I have to sort my strawberry bed out as it has got very weedy. I am going to plant mine in rows in black membrain to reserve the moisture and stop the weeds from growing through. :toothy10:
Quote from: the_snail on October 31, 2012, 23:43:39
This reminds me I have to sort my strawberry bed out as it has got very weedy. I am going to plant mine in rows in black membrain to reserve the moisture and stop the weeds from growing through. :toothy10:
Thats how mine are as well. It seemed to stop the slugs as well..
I tend to grow mine in fixed beds so the planting area is set by the size of the bed. I plant withi the bed in a grid rather than in rows to make best use of the space. As others have said it makes it easier to net this way.