Hi all
On my new allotment I inherited an estabilished strawberry bed, which has given me a huge crop of fabulous strawberries. The bed is 2.5m x 2.0m and the yield has been 6kg. I've now removed the netting and will let the birds have the remaining berries.
The established plants have produced a fabulous bounty, but the bed has some issues:
1) The plants have rooted themselves from runners and so the bed is hugely overcrowded, without clear space to walk between the crowns.
2) The overcrowding is exacerbated by a serious bindweed problem - I'm amazed the plants produced any berries at all this year as they've been strangled by the bindweed and have also had to share space with marigolds and some invasive couch grass. The bindweed problem was exacerbated by me as I didn't realise what it was (total newbie here!) so I let it grow unchecked - I thought the little white trumpets were strawberry flowers and the twining tendrils strawberry runners. I'm such an ignoramus that I didn't even realise the leaves were completely different! So I can take no credit for my bumper harvest at all!
With the bindweed it's a definite case of mea culpa...I can't believe I was so unobservant and ignorant!
This morning, after I harvested the last of the berries, I removed all the bindweed (took me hours!) and it's already made an enormous difference to the bed. I can now actually see the individual strawberry plants - before, the bed was just a mass of twining bindweed foliage. Poor plants! However, I'm under no false illusions - I very much doubt that the bindweed roots have gone for good...
Here are my questions.
1) Given that I have no idea how long the current bed of plants have been established and fruiting, would I be wise to peg off the strongest runners into sunken pots and then, when they're established, cut them from the parent plant and move them to a completely different bed in a different part of the allotment?
2) If I did that, what is the best approach to the parent bed? Should I trim back the foliage, clean away the straw, tidy the bed and just leave well alone (being vigilant for bindweed) in the hope of having an equally good harvest next year (while the immature bed is getting established)? Or am I best to dig up the parent plants this year once the new plants have established, and empty the parent bed completely?
3) If I emptied the parent bed, would that mean I would have no crop next year from my new bed of immature plants?
Through choice, I think I'd like to keep the parent bed going for one more year in the hope of having a good crop next year, and then dig up the parent plants once the plants in the infant bed have been established a whole summer (i.e. dig up the parent plants and empty the parent bed in July 2024).
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!