I currently have three strawberry beds on my allotment.
A two year old bed of variety "Alice".
A two year old bed of variety "Albion". (Perpetual)
A one year old bed of half "Alice" and half "Albion".
All the plants were grown from runners and planted out the previous early Autumns.
All three beds have the same conditions.
By March this year the plants in the new bed were bigger and stronger than the older plants.
All three beds are now cropping.
The strawberries from the new bed are better both in size and quantity than the older beds.
This is particularly apparent with the perpetual variety.
I know that commercial growers plant new every year and root out the old bed.
If I can produce enough new plants from runners then I shall be planting new every year.
The only problem is that the perpetual variety does not produce many runners.
Last year, the parent bed only produced enough runners for half a new bed so I may have to buy in a few new plants to make it work.
To be honest, I'm not overly impressed with the perpetual variety, but the attraction with them is that they produce fruit until late September, albeit at a much reduced level.
All the gardening books talk about keeping strawberry beds for three years with the second year the best.
Based on my experience, I'm no longer sure.
Has anybody grown perpetual strawberries and kept them for three years?
I cannot find much useful information about them so any help would be appreciated.