Can I use compost used for spuds for strawberry plants?

[21again]

I have a lot of compost from 3 large potato growing sacks, I don't have any soil to dig it into. Can I use this compost in pots to grow my strawberry runners in?

[rustylady]

Are you talking about rooting them, or growing them to maturity?

[21again]

Are you talking about rooting them, or growing them to maturity?

Using the compost in morrisons flower buckets with the compost in to grow to maturity.

My runners have already developed roots as I have had them draped from the pots they are in to seed trays full of water and gravel.

[FB.]

I'm sure that I've been told that strawberries and potatoes tend to require the same nutrients (or maybe suffer the same soil-borne pests?) and so they often will not thrive in soil/compost that has been used for growing each other.
However, the compost should be usable for many other types of veg or fruit.

[rustylady]

Strawberries are fairly shallow rooting, so wouldn't need anything as deep as Morrisons flower buckets. You should be able to use the compost again, but it would be advisable to "refresh" it with a multi-purpose fertiliser.

[Liza]

I use mine for carrots

[21again]

Strawberries are fairly shallow rooting, so wouldn't need anything as deep as Morrisons flower buckets. You should be able to use the compost again, but it would be advisable to "refresh" it with a multi-purpose fertiliser.

Thanks, will do that.

What size pots would you recommend for strawbs please? I don't have any soil to use so everything has to be in pots and planters.

[Scottishnewbie]

i used the same compost and there must have been some teeny weeny pots ..which of course grew right in the middle of the strawberry bed! was a real nuisance! so now i use the compost for carrots or parsnips

[Keith2202]

Strawberries are fairly shallow rooting, so wouldn't need anything as deep as Morrisons flower buckets. You should be able to use the compost again, but it would be advisable to "refresh" it with a multi-purpose fertiliser.

I don't know about that, I dug some strawberries out of my tower planter yesterday in order to top up the compost and plant the 12 for a pound lot in there. The roots on a couple of plants were ginormous, I was shocked! I guess they can grow happily with shallow roots, but if there is the chance for long deep roots they will put them down? (Presumably in the hunt for water)

[FB.]

Many plants will adapt to their soil. If the soil is dry or quite poor, the roots can be a larger portion of the plant than the leaves. If the soil is good quality, the plants don't need to put so much energy into growing roots.

[Cosmo and Dibs]

I've been taught that it is not good practice to plant strawberries where potatoes have been. I'm not sure I understood the science behind it, but there are reasons.

I'm not sure if this extends to compost or not, but I would assume it does.

[Keith2202]

I believe it is something to do with the possibility of transferring Verticillium wilt. I don't know if you need to have had it to transfer it though?

[Strawberry Fan]

In general, you shouldn't put strawberries where potatoes have been. As Keith2202 said just above, Verticillium wilt is the reason why. A large number of strawberry varieties will become infected and die if you plant where potatoes, eggplants, peppers, and several other susceptible plants have been planted previously.

[21again]

[QUOTE=Strawberry Fan;746272]In general, you shouldn't put strawberries where potatoes have been. As Keith2202 said just above, Verticillium wilt is the reason why. A large number of strawberry varieties will become infected and die if you plant where potatoes, eggplants, peppers, and several other susceptible plants have been planted previously.


Thanks very much