old strawberry bed

[noshed]

I've inherited a big bed of strawberries on my allotment, about 10x20 feet. The plants look healthy although there are a few weeds. Should I transplant the ones round the edge, on the grounds that they're the runners? I was wondering about planting the new bed through plastic mulch.
Or should I just weed and tidy up the existing bed - I want to reduce it in size a bit.

[Jaxom]

Noshed. The runners are the plants that you will need for future berry production. Normally people get rid of plants after three years of production, as the quality and yield of fruit goes down. The normal life span for a plant if I understand it correctly is - Runner, 1st year plant [little fruit], 2nd year plant [more fruit], 3rd year [most fruit], compost bin in year 4 if you are short of space.
I am sure there are Grapes who know more and will be able to advise better than I am.
Jax

[Lesley Jay]

Noshed if there are runners still attached to the strawberry plants chop them off. If they have good roots you could plant the runners. Tidy up the bed by getting rid of dead leaves and the weeds and then let the strawberry plants grow for this year. During the summer the plants will throw out runners. I let these root in the ground and at the end of summer I prepare a new strawberry bed to take the runners. Chop off the runners and dig them up and transplant in the new bed about 12 inches apart. The following year those runners will be good sized plants and they will throw out runners and you transplant these runners. You do this every year. Strawberry plants last between 3-4 years so after 3 years you throw away the plants that are 3 years old. If you have 3 strawberry beds or divide the bed into 3 it is easy to know what plants are 3 years old. After transplanting the runners I then chop the foliage down on the plants to about 4 inches. Hope this helps.

[nick the grief]

You could always give them a good start in life by sinking dome ports of compost in the ground and rooting the runners in these then plant them up in a new bed.

Prepare the new bed thouroughly & dig in loads of compost/muck if you've got it and they'll love you for it. Your supposed to remove the flowers 1st year but hey, who can resist a strawberry

[noshed]

old strawberry bed

Thanks for the advice. What do you think of planting through plastic mulch?

[Nicos]

I'm not a strawberry expert, but we have planted through plastic and had no problems with it. Had to poke the odd hole inbetween plants (to allow water to drain through! )where I have squashed the soil by standing on it To feed the soil,just lift the edges and replace afterwards.
Am going to move the beds this year-soon- and make 2 smaller ones . 4ftx20ft was too tempting to jump/step over/on! Like the idea of 3 generations of strawberries on the go at the same time

[Lesley Jay]

If you plant through plastic or a weed suppressing membrane it will keep the strawberries clean but you will need to bury the edges so that it doesn't blow away. However when the runners are thrown out they will not be able to root in the ground. You would have to pot the runners up into little plant pots whilst still attached to the main plant. But because of the plastic you can't sink the pots into the ground to stop them blowing away so you would need to pin the pots down and this will make more holes in the plstic.