I want a big strawberry garden this spring/summer. My grandmother said that the local nursery has them already and if I plant them now, they'll be producing early, like in Feb. but, would they produce throughout the season too? I am in zone 9 or 10. (I've gotten both zones for my area when I input my zip code...) Is it too early for them?? I am planning on getting some wood to make a large planter for them. If it's not too early, maybe I'll do that over the long weekend. What do you think?
Hello Melissa, I will just mention a few general things that you can think about: SOIL PREP/PLANTING: It would be ideal if you could do the soil preparation a month or so before you actually put the plants into the ground. This amount of time is required after digging for the various layers of micro-organisms to re-establish themselves. Read You should dig at least a spade's depth then add a generous amount of organic material, like compost (well-rotted) and some bone meal. SOIL: One thing that some folks don't realize is that strawberries do better in a combination of compost and earth. They like their roots in soil that is a bit on the acid side. WATERING: When you say that you want to construct a bed, do you mean a "raised bed"? If you are, then it's good to know that raised beds are notorious for easily becoming dryish, so when your new plants begin to flower you need to water the plants thoroughly and regularly (strawbs are after all, a "water" fruit, if you know what I mean). Strawberry plants have relatively shallow roots, so frequent watering not only gives you bigger fruits, but keeps your plant alive and not draught-stressed. I use pure rain water for this type of plant. FEEDING: In the winter I put manure in the new and old beds In the spring I add some manure, bone meal, compost and scratch it in well. Strawbs are plants that like to eat, so they need to be fed more than you would think. I give my plants manure "tea" from time to time during the blooming and fruiting period. CARE: In the early Spring, I remove the dead leaves, stems and other debris from the plants. If these dead leaves become wet they can begin to rot and this may spread to your plants. I then hoe around the plants to let water down to the roots more easily. I place the straw around the plants when they bloom. This is a tedious job that must be done carefully and properly. The reason one uses straw is to let the fruits rest upon it instead of the pure soil--where it could rot and be more accessable to slug attack. PROTECTING: From off the moment that you set them in the ground, you need to start planning how you are going to contruct a netting frame. A net is essential in almost any outside area, for the birds will eat themselves sick on your harvest if left unprotected. There are a number of ways to make frames. You can build a sturdy square-ish frame of poles or 2x2's for instance, or use that skinny, plastic electrical tubing to make rounded "arches" over your beds to drape the nets across. It is very flexable. I have used both, and had success; but it is also very important to realize that you must secure the netting to the ground so that animals can't creep under it. For this you can use beavy beams , bricks or tent pegs. I use stiff wire bent into an inverted "U" shape, and press this through the holes at the edge of the net. PROPAGATION: The plants that you will soon plant you will not keep forever. I keep my plants only two years, although some of my fellow allotmenteers keep them three or four. My beds always consist of 1-2 year old plants and new first-year plants. I pull up the old plants and destroy them. What needs to be done is this: at the end of the summer in say, mid-August to early September you will notice that your plants have sent out runners which will have little plantlets along them. These are going to be your new plants...to be planted in a new bed. You clip the whole runner off back at the "mother" plant, then select the plantlet with the largest root clump and plant it in the new bed. Some folks have a look during the summer and leave the runner attatched to the mother plant and set a selected little plantlet in a small plastic pot sunk into the ground. This way they won't be pulled-up inadvertantly whilst weeding. This process is ongoing year after year, moving from one place in your garden to another. ONE FINAL TIP: Take some extra plantlets from the runners and plant them in a balcony flower box, for inatance. Keep this in the strawb bed. The plants may need water from time to tome. This is your reserve stock to replace some of the plantlets that won't make it through the winter. I hope these ideas are helpful to you. Success.
Loads of info there Sjoerd I also do the straw mulching - it is great to protect the crowns of the strawberry plants against winter frost. It also works in warmer areas (It even helps to keep the fruits clean) and conserves moisture.
Hi Palm, Yes...my post was a bit long-winded...sorry. There are some folks in our allotment organization that don't use straw at all, they use that black plastic fabric that one uses under paths to keep weeds from growing up between the stones. They cut snug holes where the plants are, so that the ground is totally covered and just the strawberry plants stick out. Loads of work getting started, but very tidy indeed.
Hi Sjoerd No big deal I also get carried away sometimes. Besides I like to read how other people do gardening elsewhere and what is great is to see the many similarities in techniques. By the way, the question I asked myself was "which would be more expensive, straw or that weed repressant black plastic?" And is just so worked out that a friend had straw available that I used. (Gratis of course) Above all its organic.
Hello There Palm, Where I live the black plastic (I just can't recall the name for it), is MUCH more expensive. A bale of hay is less than $4 (USD)--- and a Bale will last me 2-3 years for my patches. I like it that the straw stays over on the ground when I move along to the next patch. I work this in amd leave it in situ. It gives the ground a really good structure.
