Strawberries - advice please?

[LostthePlot]

As you know I am working at clearing my newly acquired plot at the moment. Like most plots there is a strawberry patch, which although has lots of healthy-looking strawberry plants there are docks, dandelions and grass growing through them because of neglect. So rather than start trying to dig out the weeds and cause damage to the plants, can I remove the strawberry plants and plant them afresh in a new part of the plot, and, if so, when would be the best time to do this? I can then just attack the old patch with the weeds without any cause for concern. I forgot to add the strawberry plants are growing through a heavy duty black liner and the weeds are coming up through the same holes as the plants.

[Alison]

Don't know whether it was the right thing to do but have moved strawberry plants at this time of year before - worked on the principle that I wasn't going to damage any flowers / fruit and they could settle into their new home before it got too cold. Worked for me but don't blame me if they all die!

Just one thing though, don't suppose you have any idea how old the plants are, strawberries only really fruit effectively for about 3 years so even if the plants do OK you may not get much fruit although you could take runners off them next year to start again.

[nick the grief]

Hi LTP,

I think I'd got with Alisons second comment. WHat you could do is get some of the heavy duty weed killer thats like a gel & paint the leaves carefully, that may not kill the weeds but hopefully it may give them a severe enough check for you to see whats what. Then try and persevere this coming year & root some runners. If your plants are old they'll want chucking out so you'll be doing it twice if you move them this year.