Re-potting strawberry towers

[d000hg]

I got 4 of those towers you make by rolling up a sheet of black plastic, about 75cm high, two seasons ago. The first year they did great and last year OK, but clearly starting to fade a bit and I assume this is due to the compost losing all its goodness.

I am wondering how I can re-pot the plants back into the towers with some fresh compost, since the plants themselves are doing well. I'm assuming if I open up the tower it will be a solid mass of roots and plants that will virtually stand up on their own so how can I get new compost in without damaging the plants?

Or, can I add some nutrients/fertiliser and top up the towers (the level of compost has dropped about 20cm) rather than make a mess?!

[Scarlet]

Strawberries generally only last three years, have you taken any runners to start off some new plants?
If they didn't do so well this year, they will probably do less so again this year. So I'd be tempted to buy more as a back up and top up your planters with new compost, use feed when they start to flower.
Take runners every year to keep your plants young.

[d000hg]

Didn't know that - they die or just go really useless? Only got a couple throwing runners last year, with limited space and using the towers it's a bit tricky knowing what to do with them (other than feed the runners back into the tower)

[bario1]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I've just dug up and re-planted a load of plants that were on runners from last year's strawbs. Will they crop this year, or will i have to wait till they get bigger?

[d000hg]

When I bought "bare root" plants that looked like tiny dead bits of twig, they all cropped pretty well in the first year. In fact we might even have got a small 2nd crop, though I'm not sure.

[Jungle Jane]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I've just dug up and re-planted a load of plants that were on runners from last year's strawbs. Will they crop this year, or will i have to wait till they get bigger?

I've read not to let them fruit in their first year,to cut the flowers off,so that all the energy goes into the plant,instead of what little energy it has,to produce small fruit. Also it will produce stronger runners,having more energy. I also thought that about bare root,it's quite weak in it's first year.

[bario1]

Hmm, well now I don't know what to do! Maybe I'll leave the flowers on some plants and cut them off the others and compare... not that mad on strawberries anyway!

[Jungle Jane]

I didn't know what to do either,I knew that info but couldn't destroy the flowers,ended up with small fruit. It's like thinning a plum tree gives the plant more energy to make the remaining fruit bigger. If it produces a lot of fruit in it's first year,the following year it will suffer.

[fishpond]

I got 4 of those towers you make by rolling up a sheet of black plastic, about 75cm high, two seasons ago. The first year they did great and last year OK, but clearly starting to fade a bit and I assume this is due to the compost losing all its goodness.

I am wondering how I can re-pot the plants back into the towers with some fresh compost, since the plants themselves are doing well. I'm assuming if I open up the tower it will be a solid mass of roots and plants that will virtually stand up on their own so how can I get new compost in without damaging the plants?

Or, can I add some nutrients/fertiliser and top up the towers (the level of compost has dropped about 20cm) rather than make a mess?!

Whilst you are sorting them out, check for vine weevil grubs.