[goodier]

Hello, I have grown strawberries in the Same raised beds for five years. The soil seems so depleted now that this years crop should be called a Failure. I have no other available space or top soil and would appreciate advice as to how I could rejuvenate the beds for next years crops.
Plenty of horse manure available.

Thanks

John

[savbo]

are these the same plants that have been there for 5 years or have you bee replacing every 3 years or so?

[goodier]

No, they have been changed over the years, oldest would be two years old

Thanks John

[Kleftiwallah]

You've answered your own question.  'Orse muck'  !    Cheers,   Tony.

[goodier]

Thanks for the speedy response.

Could I ask how it should be done, the beds are 4ft X 20ft.

How much  HORSE MUCK, should it be a layer on top for a while then dug in, left to the elements or covered with a weed suppressing mat?

John

[viettaclark]

Horse muck is an excellent soil improver but doesn't have a lot of nutrients.
I would advise some fish blood and bone as well.

[goodier]

Many Thanks, I am sure it is not just as simple as chucking Horse muck on the beds, the soils structure, originally clay, is now light and well draining on our Pennine hillside,

Have you any thoughts on quantities?

THANKS

[mumofstig]

Are the strawberry plants still strong growing.............it could be that they have a virus which affected cropping

[goodier]

No they are quite poor specimens, just the odd berry, whilst grow bags a similar plants a few meters away are thrivng.
Joh

[Yorkie]

We had a talk at our association AGM a few years ago from a soft fruit chappie.  I seem to recall that as well as replenishing the plants, he also rotated them around a little.  I don't think they suffer from particular pests but the nutrients will clearly be depleted over 5 years.

I am not a strawberry expert (growing them for the first time this year), but if you can't find somewhere else to grow them in the garden for a couple of years, then perhaps it might be worth potting them into pots for now, adding organic matter (e.g. manure, compost) to improve the soil structure and also general purpose fertiliser such as growmore or fish blood bone?

I'm not very good on fertilisers and nutrients, and am not sure which particular nutrients will have been depleted in the soil - perhaps someone else will know this.

[goodier]

Thank you very helpful, I do hope a soil expert will contribute.

John