[Urban Farmer]

Hi all,

I took over an allotment this year with what appeared to be a well established strawberry bed. Only problem is that the whole thing is overgrown and as the strawberries were doing well I didn't want to disturb them at that time - especially as couch and ragwort meant that I'd have to dig deep.

I'm now in the process of covering up my allotment in the hope I can finally get my weeds under control. What I am asking is whether it is a good idea to remove the plants that I can and pop them in pots for the winter? I will probably take them home and pop them on my balcony if I'm successful. However, if you think that it might be best to start again next year I can accept this.

Just for an idea of quite how weedy the plot is  - this is a picture of the strawberry patch from June where, compared to now, it is looking quite good!! 

Thanks for your advice as always! Px

[Goosegirl]

My suggestion are to either dig up the newer ones and pot them up over winter (this will mean looking carefully at their roots so you don't transplant any couch grass roots etc with them) or start again next year with new plants which I think might be the better ideas so you know they are of good stock, should produce well and are not virus-infected. I got some Elegance strawbs from D.T.Browns this yesr which have a lovely flavour and not too expensive.

[Yorkie]

Do you know how long the strawberries have been in? After 3 years their productivity starts to decline, with max 5 years or so advised.

As GG says, you could take the newest ones and pot them up for the winter, or just start afresh next year depending on their age and whether you want to try a different variety, for example.

[Urban Farmer]

Thanks Goosegirl and Yorkie. This is part of the problem, I am not sure how long they've been in there. We had a VERY good harvest this year which makes me think they were planted last year (2014) or the year before that. Which means they might have at least a year or two - or I could be wrong. I did also find leftover strawberry packaging in the shell of the greenhouse when I took it over so that means it could be 2014 (or they weren't very tidy!)

Maybe best to start from scratch. The whole plot needs turning over so it might be easier this way? Feel a bit bad for the strawberries but I guess we had a good year this year and they might not survive the transplanting?

[Yorkie]

Strawberries are pretty resilient if you handle the roots fairly carefully. You could see how easy it would be to dig up a couple of plants and remove the weed roots - perhaps put them in proper pots for a full season so you can check whether you've transplanted weeds.

But unless you're willing to do this for as many of the plants as you want to retain, you're going to have to buy some new plants anyway.

Depends whether you want the challenge!

[surbie100]

It depends how much work you want to have. I took all mine out of a similar bed a couple of years ago - I stripped all the soil off the plants and stuck them in pots of compost. I wasn't very gentle with them but they all survived. And they are still cropping well if I remember to water them properly. I had something like 200 plants out of a 4ftx8ft bed.

[Nobbie]

Why not dig them up and leave a ball of soil around the roots and then just stack them all next to each other in a block until you've got the soil clear. They're tough as old boots as long as they don't get waterlogged, so shouldn't mind too much. Then just remove all the weed roots before replanting in early spring.

[Fairy Plotmother]

My advice is the same as Nobbie!