[lazza]

We moved into our current house about 20 months ago, and in the back garden was a 4'x4' raised bed of strawberries. It was rather neglected when we moved in, as the previous owners of the house had divorced and moved out! But once the coldest part of the winter was over, I stripped all the plants back to their stalks taking out all the brown leaves and rotten/shrivelled strawberries, and took out all the weeds.

So last summer, we had a huge crop of strawberries - maybe 18-20lb from about 9 or 10 plants. And this summer was pretty similar, perhaps not quite so good.

Which gets me thinking. I read that strawberries crop best in year 2 and not well at all after year 3, so I am guessing that last year was year 2, making this year year 3. Which means I need to think about rejuvenating my strawberry patch.

The question is: what should I do? Last year I planted a few runners into the spaces between plants, and they did fruit a little bit this year. And this year, I have fed some runners into pots, which I hope will root OK. But I have now heard that it's not a good idea to keep strawberries in the same place year after year as viral diseases build up (it was on Gardeners' World this week!!) so my plan to replant the new plants in the same place don't look too good. The problem is, I have nowhere else to plant them! The raised bed is in our back garden, and the rest of the garden is lawn and flower beds and shrubs.

Would it be an option to uproot all the existing plants, completely dig out the raised bed, and replenish with fresh soil and manure? Or are strawberry viral diseases more resistant than that? It's not my favoured option, as it means digging out a lot of earth and uprooting last year's "new" plants, but I would like to continue with this wonderful abundance of fruit if at all possible!!

[Trillium]

I have a similar situation where I have only 1 place to grow strawberries.

What I do is to dig up whatever I think still has some growing time left and I always dig up a chunk of soil with the roots so not to disturb them. I set all aside together out of the way and keep lightly watered.

Where the growing area is, I fork out all weeds and other junk I don't want. I dig trenches for the strawberry rows (mostly to control them), then I heap on loads of rotted manure, compost if you have it, kelp, blood, fish & bonemeal, a bit of general fertilizer, etc. Scuff it lightly into the holes to mix. Then plant out any saved plants into the same row, and in other rows plant young plants or new roots, depending on what you have or where you think your plants are in age. Be sure to plant the berries at exactly the same level they grew in before and gently firm in soil as you plant so they don't sink with the first rain.

Water well and always stay on top of any weeds that want to form.  

Here's an excellent how-to video that you can adapt to your raised bed. I used the method this year with great success.

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[lazza]

Great, thanks

Sounds like my rough plan is a possibility with some slight improvements

[gavinjconway]

You need to bin the 3 year olds now.. collect runners off the first year plants each year and plant them out early September where the 3rd year come out after preparing the new bed..

2nd year are best for fruit with a lesser crop on the 3rd year plants. So when the 3rd year are finished fruiting pull and bin them. Prepare your soil either in the same spot or new spot if pos for a the new batch of the runners to be planted that you have got from the first year plants..

Basically harvest your runners each year and rotate between beds if possible. You really need a few beds for the different ages if pos..