Do strawberries need rotating?

[adarajames]

Hello again :0)

Now I was under the impression that you oculd keep strawberries in the 'permanant' crop areas, but in 2 or 4 years phases so you replace a section of them every year so none is older than 3 or 4 years, but another book I read said that you have to put them into the rotation so as to avoid staying in the same place constantly! Which is right? Surely you can't move them all the time as you would then have to renew them all the time which would be uneconomical beyond any other consideration! Can I put them in the fruit cage with other fruit and assume they are a permanant planting?!
Am little confused!
Thanks
Jo

[Alison]

You're correct about the replacing bit and suppose that theoretically each time you replace them, you should move them to a different part of the garden so as to avoid the build up of any soil based diseases. However, in practise I think a fair number of people don't bother. When I lived with my parents we had a large strawberry frame split into 3 sections. One section was replaced each year but after the plants had been dug up, the soil was given a good dig over and plenty of nutrients added. We always got a huge crop and never seemed to have any problems. Think this may be a case of the ideal not necessarily being practical for most people but be prepared for alternative views from other grapes!

[SimonCole]

I am in agreement with Alison on this one. I would only move strawberries if they look like they are struggling.

[Snadger]

I started with six different varieties of strawberrry plants to give me a longer cropping season and a variety of flavours. First year I had a reasonable crop and just let the runners root themselves.
2nd year I had a much better crop and some of the previous years runners gave me a small crop as well.
Now I have no-idea of which varieties are which and I would guess I probably have hybrids of all six originals.
If a plant looks a bit past it at the end of the season I split it up and make way for one of it's runners.
I still have the original bed (3rd year) which I mulch and feed with a slow release high potash fertiliser, but I also have another bed comprised of a mixture of runners and split crowns from the original.
Once the new bed is cropping well I may abandon the old bed and grow something else in it.
So in a nutshell, what works for me is a four year bed, then a new bed comprised of runners from the original!

Sorry for the longwinded reply!