New strawberry bed help.

I know this is a bit of a ‘how long is a piece of string’ type question But I am re-making my strawberry patch after two successive years of pathetic crops - different reasons each year though.

I love strawberries and would ideally like to make 4/5 pots of jam, plus enough to eat a couple of bowl fulls every couple of days!

So, my question is how many plants would you put in to achieve that in an average year?

Any comments/advice gratefully received. So far I’ve planted out 24 new runners...

Have you got room for a few pots at home ? 

I find you get really good yields from those which might help with the supply of eating ones. 

You could save your plot crop for jam then, without having to devote huge amounts of space 

Nobbie has planted at very wide spacings in very good soil.   The answer depends on how much room you are willing to devote to them and how big your plot is.   I would certainly consider planting them in holes in weed suppressant material so that they are undisturbed by weeds.   In a smallish plot, I would plant at 12" x 12" spacings.   What spacing have you used so far?

I don’t grow them on the plot, but I have raised beds at home where I have about a dozen plants, then I do a couple of big pots every year as well.

The raised beds are good soil and I mulch them over winter with bagged stable manure.  We get a pretty decent crop, but I have also done this and replaced half with a later cropping variety so we don’t get them all at once. 

Might be an idea to get six early and 6 late fruiting plants so you can eat fresh over a longer period.

They are a crop worth spoiling a bit for really good results.  You could achieve this by good spacing, or by making sure you really look after the soil they are in, or a combination of both 

If you have room I’d increase to 36 plants, but bear in mind they should increase yield after year 1 & decrease yields after year 3 so it is recommended to dispose of after year 3 or 4. So you might be better to do it on a rolling programme, so next year plant another 12 up & so on. Of course if you have masses f room go for it now. Remember though not tomplant the next plants where these have been when you discard them. I started this current bed with 36 plants from Lidl 2 or 3  years ago. This year we had more than we could eat & I made over 18 mixed sized jars of jam & the same last year.