I was just wondering after reading Tracey's post in the intro thread. It seems that I end up growing more grass than strawberries and I'm a pretty good weeder. LOL.

I've planted several strawberry beds over the years and they always do poorly. I know that they *can* be grown here because there are upick farms all over.

Is there some trick, that I missed? I'm just about to quit trying and invest the energy into something else, ya know. I looked at my plants (3 years old in my yard now) and judging by the blooms, it looks like a mediocre yield at best.

I see all the strawberry beds around here and I'm going to try to replicate next year. I'll try to describe what they do:

The rows are raised with channels between them. We only get rainfall in the winter and spring months, so I'm guessing that helps all the water go to the roots more directly instead of pooling unevenly.

Next, for the weeds, they actually cover the raised rows in plastic sheeting with cut-outs for the plants to stick through. I don't want to use plastic, so I may try shade cloth or that stuff you put under wood chips to prevent weed from coming through. I will wash and reuse it year after year.

Maybe that will work for you or some adaptation of it.

ok, sure. I get it.

I'll have to rethink my design then. My plants are in a flat bed. Well, I moved a few to some containers, but the primary bed is just a regular plot.

Does 2-3 blossoms per plant seem normal? That seems light to me but I'm not an expert. Maybe my soil needs a testing. I dunno.

Does 2-3 blossoms per plant seem normal? That seems light to me but I'm not an expert. Maybe my soil needs a testing. I dunno.

That definitely seems light. However, I don't really know either, but considering it takes one bloom to be a strawberry, the more the better right? :)

I would test your soil though. I think strawberries are finicky about their nutrient content.

Another cool thing the strawberry patches to is plant onions all around the perimeter. The scent masks the sweet smell and the deer and critters stay away.

I have had a lot of success controlling weeds with mulching. I just did a weeding of the whole garden and put down a couple bales of straw...did this last year and the weeds were much reduced. (I sprung for straw vs hay because hay has weed seeds in it, so it sort of defeats the purpose - I did hay last year and have the weeds to show for it now!) I wonder if you could do that - weed once the plants are small, then mulch heavily?

I know organic strawberry growers use geese to manage weeds. :) Want some geese? ;) They're also great guards...maybe too good, they can be nasty and aggressive.

What I'd like to do is somehow get my strawberries to become ground cover in my ornamental beds. From what I'm reading here, that sounds like it might not be likely to succeed.

(oh, and I'm obviously not a homesteader, but I will be checking out this forum because some of the stuff will/does fit)

Ha. See now a few years ago i was lamenting about trying to grow grass in the yard when an old school homesteader (on another forum) said the surest way to get grass was to plant a strawberry garden. :joker: smart @ss.

IME, strawberries love loamy soil with lots of compost. They do much better when planted in mounds and love to be mulched with straw. They like to be damp, but not wet and a couple of applications of fish emulsion or chicken droppings keep them happy too.

IME, strawberries love loamy soil with lots of compost. They do much better when planted in mounds and love to be mulched with straw. They like to be damp, but not wet and a couple of applications of fish emulsion or chicken droppings keep them happy too.

thank you. I can follow those directions. yep.

When we bought this house it came with a garden full of strawberry plants. Too many actually :lol:

I don't do anything to them. We picked many strawberries last year. They bloomed again early fall as well which was nice.

So I dunno. We don't do much out there.

When we bought this house it came with a garden full of strawberry plants. Too many actually :lol:

I don't do anything to them. We picked many strawberries last year. They bloomed again early fall as well which was nice.

So I dunno. We don't do much out there.

Same here. My fil gave us a bunch of plants last year (after they were done for the season), and we just left them in our raised bed over the winter, and now they're producing very well. All I do is water every day and pick the ripe ones on a daily basis.

I have seen many a strawberry patch growing on a slope...so there must be something to the mounding/sloping business:) Certainly that keeps the strawberries from sitting in the water.

They have biodegradeable compost mats...instead of plastic.

wanna come weed my garden :help:
:smooch:
good luck with yours.

My aunt had them for years and I've heard that most berry plants are weeds. She yielded hundreds per season in her little 6X6 patch and said they just came back every year. The growing conditions seemed just like mine - plop in a plant and leave it. :p

I planted mine this spring - we lost two, but the rest seem solid - just green. I don't anticipate getting any actual berries this year (aside from the few that were already on the plants, which we let Miss Bunny eat). I hope to see them flourish next year, though.

And, like you, Rebecca - they're more of a ground cover for my area. It's Skylar's Strawberry Patch. Her job is weeding it and keeping the leaves off the ground. (And Madison has three blueberry bushes in another quadrant).

I just sent the girls out to check ours and they can see lots of red :) Will be picking soon! Can't wiat. Berries are getting expensive to buy with as fast as my kids eat them!

I haven't even watered mine at all this year yet. Of course this is SE Wisconsin and we have had enough rain and flooding to never water my plants again :lol:

Ack! Really crystal? I think we're on the same parallel and I barely have any blossoms. crud.

I really wanted this to be a plop and plant too.

I'm doing raised beds around a fence this coming week. I may have to think about a transplant. nuts.

Linda, I'd love to come weed. I think I've become quite addicted to the task. I went to help a girlfriend paint today and ended up weeding her flowerbed. Last night, while standing around visiting with my sil, her garden was suddenly weed free. lol.

Linda, I'd love to come weed. I think I've become quite addicted to the task. I went to help a girlfriend paint today and ended up weeding her flowerbed. Last night, while standing around visiting with my sil, her garden was suddenly weed free. lol.
it is pretty therapeutic IMO.

:)

Yeah, I agree that raised beds with good fertilizer (I have used fish emulsion and chicken blood and bone meal). Also, the mulch helps keep the moisture and pests away from the leaves, blossoms and berries.

One year, we didn't mulch and I had some fungus on a lot of the berries as well as having to use a slug away (natural stuff but still),... It would have been better to just mulch in the first place. I think straw would be a great alternative to plastic, even though all our local u-picks use the plastic. It might be easier to lay and they may need all their straw/hay for animals.. dunno.

we have a great strawberry bed, though my dd is partial to white strawberries so rarely do we get a red one!
ours are in raised beds but we do have slug issues at times.

Thank you for all the suggestions.

I have a raised area that I can dedicate but it needs some work. The soil is in tough shape. It as abused and moved by a skid loader. ugh. Clay packed mess. I'm going to till in some compost then start layering it.

My plants should survive where they're at for now and then I'll move them late summer, early fall....I really don't want to move them next year because then it'll be TWO years before I see anything. blah.