strawberries, beds in 2nd year

[vegelady]

Last year I dug over a raised bed, planted new strawberry plants and bought a bag of horse manure from garden centre. Had a good crop of strawberries. Can someone please advise what I do this year. I weeded last weekend and the soil is damp and heavy (we are on clay but I did dig in lots of home made compost last year). I have no home made compost left but do have bonfire ash. Do I add ash/buy in compost (am on a budget)/add more horse manure/ or just feed with chicken pellets. last year I fed with Tomorite every two weeks when the plants were fruiting.
Any advise would be appreciated
thanks
Alison

[Aberdeenplotter]

Last year I dug over a raised bed, planted new strawberry plants and bought a bag of horse manure from garden centre. Had a good crop of strawberries. Can someone please advise what I do this year. I weeded last weekend and the soil is damp and heavy (we are on clay but I did dig in lots of home made compost last year). I have no home made compost left but do have bonfire ash. Do I add ash/buy in compost (am on a budget)/add more horse manure/ or just feed with chicken pellets. last year I fed with Tomorite every two weeks when the plants were fruiting.
Any advise would be appreciated
thanks
Alison

I will once again pass on information from the RHS publication FRUIT by Harry Baker ISBN0 85533 193 3 (Available on Amazon for a whole penny + postage of £2.80)

"At the end of January each year apply sulphate of potash at the rate of half ounce per squ yard along each side of the row for hardiness, the development of flowers and flavour. No other feeding is necessary unless the growth has been poor in which case repeat the treatment in April."

I do love that book.

[Kristen]

Strawberry plants will only do three years before their yield etc falls off ... so you ought to replant for year 4 (or replace 1/3rd of the bed each year - depending on whether you can rotate the crop to a new bed, or whether its a permanent bed).

Allow the runners to make new plants in the late Summer the year before you want them (they can root into the soil, but I prefer to root them into little 3" pots - but I have space to manage the parking-lot of pots that are produced!)

[northepaul]

You could maybe add some more manure around them? I am in the same boat, second year with one bed. I covered the whole bed with weed control fabric, after laying down manure. I wasnt planning on adding anything to them unless the yeald is poor.

[Alison]

I gave my original strawberry bed a good dose of chicken manure before I planted the runners and got a reasonable first year crop. Did the same with another bed the year afterwards but didn't add anything more to the first bed. The first bed (in it's second year) produced more strawberries than we could eat - have tonnes of jam and they were lovely. Am making a third bed this year and then replacing the first bed next year and on and on it goes.

[gojiberry]

Harry Baker is right but there are very few gardeners that go to the extremes of using NPK in single form. (Or am I wrong in that assumption). For feeding I use one of the following Well rotted manure, home made compost, (I know these two only have limited nutrients) blood fish and bone, chicken pellets, comfrey &/or nettles and liquid tomato feed. For the strawberries I will use the BFB as it will give nutrients over a longer period of time. It will be raked in around the plants in the next week or so.

Ian

[vegelady]

thankyou all, I will invest in the book - am building up quite a library of recommended reading and also printing out answers to my questions!

[palomino]

I love this forum, there's usually someone else asking just what I needed an answer to!

My strawbs are in hanging baskets (3 per basket), an old tin bath (about 25 plants) and last year's runners got pegged into 3" cell trays, the biggest 12 are temporarily in an old growbag. The baskets were planted in 2008, the bath last year. I was thinking of moving the basket strawbs to a couple of huge pots, but perhaps I should be throwing them away at this age?