Strawberry Beds

[paulwbecca]

We have taken over an allotment and I have a huge strawberry bed which I just dont know what to do with! I have attached a picture and would just like some advice on what to do, should i tidy it up? If so how? or should it all be riped up? Any help would be great

Thanks in advance

Becca x

[zazen999]

That's a big bed you've got there.

Firstly, do you want alot of strawbs?

What I would do is to leave it this year, and collect all the strawbs from this year's harvest; and they will throw out runners later on in the summer. Peg the new runners down and they will root. Then, keep the best plants and dig up the non-producers as the summer comes to an end, and re-plant the rooted runners in the positions where the older plants had been. You could also use that time to reduce the size of the bed if you didn't want it that big. Give it a good tomato based feed during the summer, and mulch well in the autumn.

You could also just tidy it up now, by chopping back any dead leaves and weeding, and pop some straw down before it all springs back to life. Remove the straw in the autumn, mulch and put fresh straw down next spring.

[paulwbecca]

Great thanks for the advice, I will be giving it a good tidy up this week. Also is the straw to keep the slugs off it? Very sorry but Im so new to this!

[Dottie]

Strawberries should really only be in the same bed for 3 years.

I would take advantage of any harvest this year and pot up runners straight into pots, then once they have rooted plant them into a newly created bed.

Straw is used to keep the strawberries clean from mud splashes when it rains.

Enjoy.

[paulwbecca]

I cant believe how many plants there are in this bed! I am on my 2nd day now of trying to tidy it up, ive dug up quite a few and given them away, replanted some, but there is still loads of them, I think this is gonna take a few more days, but well worth it! Thanks again for advice, i will post a pic when I have finished!

Bec

[esrikandan]

Strawberries have a habit of multiplying! I started off with 18 plants last spring in one of my strawberry beds. I had a tidying session in the summer and removed about 20 runners. Cleared it out last week and repotted over 20 as well as discarding another 20 or so.

But if you love strawberries then it's all worth it!

[paulwbecca]

We all love strawberries so we were so happy when we were given the allotment with stawberries already planted. I also have another bed full and I mean FULL of strawberry plants but havent got round to that one yet, thought i would do the biggest bed first! Lots of work to do, but loving every minute of it!

[Snadger]

Unfortunately I've been trampling all over my strawberry bed these last few weeks as it's the only place I could site my new chicken coop and run!
I'll try and rescue a few and start a new bed!

They are usually quite amenable and can take a bit of rough treatment, thank goodness!

Good luck with yours paulwbecca and welcomwe to the vine!