After doing a little (very little, I'm sorry to say) research last year, I decided to put in some strawberry sets this spring. I just applied a couple of inches of homemade compost to the patch and turned it yesterday. I intend to purchase and plant this weekend. Was I right to amend the soil? Should I wait longer before planting? Any suggestions on what kind of berries I should get? As many of you know, my space is limited. I have set aside a bed on the far end of my patch (it was fallow last year and was part of a flower bed the year before) about 3' x 4'. Any berries that do well in small quarters? Do you prefer everbearing or the kind that only produce in the spring? (I think I remember hearing that everbearing were a little tougher and with bigger seeds?)

I would be grateful for any and all knowledge you would care to share about your own strawberry experiences. Thanks! :x

OK, just because I'm chomping at the bit and don't want you to think I'm a slacker, here's a few web sites I dug up about growing strawberries, which I will peruse more in depth once I get home.

I am already preparing mself to NOT have strawberries I grew myself this season (although one site mentioned that you can leave 1 or 7 plants to flower without harming root growth).

OK, I REALLY must get back to work!

http://www.citygardening.net/growstraw/

http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/strawberries/growing.html

http://www.backyardgardener.com/plants/gstrawberry.html

http://gardening.about.com/od/fruitsberriesnuts/a/Strawberries.htm

> I am already preparing mself to NOT have strawberries
> I grew myself this season (although one site
> mentioned that you can leave 1 or 7 plants to flower
> without harming root growth).
>
Uh, that should read: "you can leave 1 OF 7 plants to flower without harming root growth."

I put in my first bed of strawberries last year in a 4 X 6 raised bed. I planted all around the edges. I used a total of 25 plants. By summer the runner plants had filled in all the voids around the edges of the bed. I kept them cleared from the middle of the bed. After a couple years, I will try letting them grow in the middle of the bed and start killing off the outside of the bed. If that doesn't work well, I'll pull them all and start over every 3-4 years. I just don't want to have a year without any! I grew Honeoye, which is a Junebearer.

For what it is worth, I pulled all flowers last year to "supposedly" get stronger plants. The soil was a mixture of well composted horse manure and plain garden sandy soil. Late fall, I covered them with straw. They are uncovered now and looking OK. (Keep in mind I have yet to harvest anything from this bed, so my experiences thus far are just that, not recommendations!)

There is a really good article (in my opinion) on growing organic strawberries in the current issue of Countryside.

Thanks for sharing your experience, walleye.

Here's a link to the article:
http://www.countrysidemag.com/current.htm#article3

Thanks!


Message was edited by: phoebe bird

OK. My favorite local nursery has Ozark (everbearing) and Dell Marvel (Junebearing). Anyone care to weigh in on either or both, or do you have any recommendations?

I'm going to copy this thread to OTF, since there hasn't been much activity here, and in case you can't tell, I'm chomping at the bit to get these babies in this weekend while the nice spring weather lasts (it's supposed to be 80 here today, which is about 25 degrees above normal for this time of year in my neck of the woods. forecast is cloudy and 72 with rain in the afternoon/evening tomorrow.). It's got me in a gardening mood, all right! :x

I had a similar questions a while ago. I had purchased Ozark Beauties in peat pots from Wal-Mart :O, Bonnie's brand. I let them set outside to "harden off" a little bit and kept them well watered. It's been unseasonably warm here in South Central Iowa. I went ahead and planted them about 1 week ago and they're fine. We even had one night below freezing and they still look fine!

I love the peat post since it avoids a lot of transplant shock...no disturbing the roots.

You might go to http://gurneys.com/default.asp and see what they're strawberry plants descriptions say and what may work best for your area.

You never go wrong amending your soil w/compost and you might get more plants in one area if you get/make one of those strawberry bed pyramids.