Allotments 4 All

I had planned to move and extend my strawberry bed to a bit of my allotment that has grown some Anya potatoes in this year. But now I understand that this may not be a good idea, as Strawberries can suffer from Verticillum Wilt that could be passed on from the potatoes. Some American websites are saying not to plant Strawberries within 5 years of any of the potato family!

Has anyone done this and been ok? Is it worth the risk?!

I don't really have another area ready that I could put my strawberries in at the moment, and I have brassicas waiting to go in the bed where the strawberries are ....... any opinions? :-\

 ??? I'd read that too lets hope somebody can give us a definitive answer...
:-\

I only realized this after reading somewhere that strawberries after potatoes isn't a good idea. I've had no luck with my strawberries for about five years now, now I know why. Last year I didn't follow on after potatoes and this year I've had a wonderful crop for the first time for a long time.

In addition to not planting directly after pots, but on ground that I used two years ago for potatoes, I took the trouble of changing the earth in the bed I used for the strawberries.

Result - not one problem.

Personally, I wouldn't worry. In fact if the ground had been well manured for the spuds it should produce half decent slightly acidic humous rich conditions for the Strawbs

It was really well manured, it was a very couch ridden clay soil before i dug it over last year. Where the strawberries are now I also put our shredded Christmas tree as a mulch to help raise the acidity, might have to skim that off and reuse where I am replanting!

The plants are all really healthy, so should stand a good chance of being OK, I think I will move most of them as planned, but keep a few in pots at home so if disaster strikes I can re-propagate and will not lose all my precious Gariguettes!

Thanks for all advice.. ;D

The fruit farm where I used to work had to write off about an acre of strawbs that were where some spuds had been - because of Virticillium Wilt. They hadn't known that spuds had been there before they bought the land.

They looked like lovely healthy plants, and as the season progressed, they would fall over on hot days, then eventually they were unable to recover at the end of each day. Very poor yields.

Perhaps it's more likely to be a problem on a larger scale?