[Jackypam]

I can't easily get straw.  Anyone found another good way to keep the strawberries off the soil and away from the slugs?

[andy dewar]

To be honest i never use straw i sometimes put organic slug pellets down but i find regular picking is enough i dont even net them and i dont get bird problems either perhaps im lucky but most people on our site do the same

[mumofstig]

You can get mulch mats at the garden centre - but, slug pellets and then mulch with cardboard, seems to work............
http://www.harrodhorticultural.com/strawberry-mulch-mats-pack-of-10-pid7630.html

and have to use netting here 

[adri]

but aren't slug pellets a poison that you're then going to eat?

I've been night time slug hunting twice a week and taken out about 20 at a time from the PT.  There's still a good few holes in fruit and leaf but we're getting the most of it and no poisons.  what's the use in growing your own if you can't be sure the food is free of toxins?

Adri

[Yorkie]

Slug pellets under the cardboard means no contact with them.

[Totty]

Put them in hanging baskets.

Totty

[heygrow]

I've used wood bark, which seems to be working so far and a bit tidier than straw.

[adri]

@yorkie

Thx.  But doesn't the toxin seep down into the soil which then gets into the fruit.?  Dunno myself only being a novice.

Adri

[Nobbie]

@yorkie

Thx.  But doesn't the toxin seep down into the soil which then gets into the fruit.?  Dunno myself only being a novice.

Adri

No,

If this was a problem, then I'm pretty sure they would have been banned by the EU by now like many other pesticides. Also, just because something is toxic to slugs does not necessarily make it toxic to humans. A bar of dark chocholate would kill my dog, but just makes me fat

[m1ckz]

mine are under heavy duty weed supressant

[sunshineband]

I use straw, with slug pellets put down under it too. This year I also have a lot of plants in troughs, and the fruit hangs over the sides, which is handy. 

[gavinjconway]

I grow mine thru weed fabric - no slugs and no dirt on the fruit..

[pigguns]

<<nips out to find cardboard/weed suppressant>>...

[surbie100]

I grow mine thru weed fabric - no slugs and no dirt on the fruit..

I did that. But I used the finer (cheaper!) membrane that you can see through and didn't pay attention to the runners. Nearly every strawberry runner I own has grown through the blasted membrane and, if I had to move it, is now sporting a fetching black skirt.
 

[Lottiman]

Mine are in a raised bed,  I planted them through weed membrane and covered it with all the stones picked off the plot. The raised bed has a 2x2 timber frame sat on top that is hinged with poly pipe tube and chicken wire over. We had a major problem with rats eating them as well as birds a couple of years back