how mnay strawberry plants for a 1.5m sq bed?

[kiwirach]

Hi everyone, i was having a look in one of the gardening magazines and have seen a strawberry cage that i'm going to invest in. i was wondering how many s/berry plants you would require to fill a bed thats 1.5m square?.

currently i have 14 plants and have just pinned down a runner, so 15 altogether. do i need a bigger bed, or more plants( and the reason i'm hoping you say more plants is i might go for the 10 free runners in the same magazine)

your thoughts greatly appreciated.
thanks

oh, and sorry...tried to edit the title but it won't let me...doh!.

[Nicos]

I'd say 9 is standard

...although- looking at my beds, I have about 16 in that sort of area and it's going to be pretty overcrowded when they reach full size ( about 1 ft per plant).
Hygiene- ie removal of any signs of disease-should keep things ok.
( well that's what I'm hoping!!)

Certainly no more than that- I'd just extend the area if you can

[Flummery]

I usually reckon about a foot apart (yes, mixing my units!)

[kiwirach]

ok, thanks guys....need to covert 1ft in m's so i can figure out the size....the next size up cages are only a few quid more. just want to get it right if i'm going to buy a cage!!.

[Nicos]

MyFolia | Plant Information about Strawberry Garden Strawberry, Common Strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa)

For Gardeners | Welsh Fruit Stocks


does that help??

[percy charlie]

your bed is 4ft 10 inch squared you can easily get 10-12 per row and 7 rows in i put 5 plants in a 2ft by 10in trough and mine have always done well i have 125 plants with around 1500 flowers on them but when the runners come i put a plant pot at the side and peg runner in there not in the trough, as i only allow 5 in the trough. strawberrys can manage a little cramping there packed tightly when you go strawberry picking and you can never have enough strawberry plants. Blackmore do strawberry plants at good prices £5 for 10 cambridge favourite runners, good quality too as i had 60 strawberry plants of them and all have servived.

[Nicos]

Flipping heck Percy....and I thought mine were overcrowded!!!!

[kiwirach]

thanks for that Percy, one of the reasons i was thinking about this is there is an offer in one of the gardening mags for 10 runners free + p&p of about £4!. i'll ponder some more this evening after work!!.

[percy charlie]

been out in the garden today to give them a feed some plants now have over 20 flowers on each and some are still forming, they must like the way i treat them, and as i said i dont plant the runners with the strawberry plants as i put 5 to a trough i put the in single plant pots at the side. some of the strawberry plants i got from from www,blackmore.co.uk have also started to do runners as well now. i will have to get the fruit net soon. my best friend keeps hers a little crowded too and she gets lots of fruit too, we think if you give them too much space they go mad forming runners and you get less fruit as a result (i have found this through my experience), i also only let so many plants form runners and cut unwanted runners before they start to grow. the plants are always tightly wedged in the strawberry picking fields so prehaps they get same result or conclusion as me. you can never have enough strawberries! i go me a old large cold water tank and it will fit a good 30 plants (my spacing style) so that will be min of 155 by august to my collection. haha

[kirsty b]

I've got 20 plants in a 1.5mx1.5m bed, spaced about 8" apart. Got room fpr another 10 in there. Have been checking my plants for runners as I don't want any this year. Got loads of fruit forming and still more flowers in bud too. This year will be first 'proper' harvest as the plants were young last year and we only got about a handful.