Strawberry Preparations For Next Year

Well, it's almost July, so I am beginning my preparations for the coming season. I started this today.
In mid-August it will be time to transplant the little plantlets that I grow on the runners of the existing plants.

--First of all, I hand pick the weeds growing in the beds and then schoffel the paths in-between.
The books advise to remove the straw from around the plants when you clean the beds, but of course I have to do it differently. I leave the straw to act as a mulch to help hold the moisture in the ground, as strawbs have notoriously shallow roots that are suseptable to August heat and dry spells.

--To encourage the present plants (this is their 1st year)to grow more leaves and make more roots, I trim off the upper leaves down to ± two fingers above the grow point.

--Next I arrange the runners and guide them in two directions (right and left from the mother plant). This makes it easier for me to keep up with them and the little plantlets. I like to organize them this way rather than have them growing in every direction and into the paths, etc. It's messy and confusing...and invariably a good plantlet takes root in an awkward place.
--I give the plants a bit of blood meal for the Nitrogen value to aid the plants in producing foilage.
After all the cleaning, trimming and blood meal applying has been done, I use a three-prong scratcher to loosen the soil.

--Finally I thoroughly water them in. I give them an exaggerated amount of water slowly, so that it soaks right down to below the roots.
I also keep an eye on the weather forecasts and do this whole procedure when rain is expected.
It rained right on cue tonight.
I just water them every two or three days during the early days and during the draughty periods to keep them moist, I feel that it is especially important to do until it's time to harvest the plantlets for next year's patch at least.
It is important to continue watering your strawberry plats even after you have harvested the last berry so that thery can complete their cycle withoud frying to a brown crisp in the Aughyt sun.

Here is the patch of the yearling plants before cleaning.

This is after the 'treatment'.

And here you can get an idea of how I generally arrange the runners. As they become longer, I will properly 'tack down' the runners near the selected plantlet to be used for next season's new bed.

 

oh how differant our seasons are. your rearranging your strawberries and I'm now harvesting ours. I will be needing to put in new rows at the end of our season for easier picking for next year. Thanks for the info.

 

Sjoerd, so much work. I don't know how you have time for anything else. I've filed this one away for future use, I hope you don't mind. Always a lession learned from you. I've got the same blue bucket and knee pad as you. Thanks for sharing.

 

Fried? Sun? Watering? Can't understand what you're talking about. Our strawberries won't be ripe for another month! I appreciate the how-to, we're thinking of expanding our patch.

 

same here Droopy we have a month to go too.

Well done Sjoerd. I keep mine under a black tarp, to keep the needed heat in and cut down on the weeding also. The tarp is a loose weave so liquid fertalizer is no problem.

Your plantlets look healthy and happy, and i'm sure next yrs harvest will be just as sweet.

 

Thank you folks for your nice comments.
Eileen - Just throw a net over some kind of frame over your strawbs. It's the only thing I can do to keep the blackbirds and others off our little berries.

 

Been harvesting mine for a week or so now - no many this year as I completely moved my strawb bed last autumn. I will also be pegging down runners soon but I think I will do them in little pots. I know it is harder to keep them watered, but I am going to have to jig my strawb bed around yet again because some volunteer taters have sprung up right in the middle, so I am going to dig them up when the strawbs have finally finished. Constant housekeeping on these allotments huh sjoerd?!

 

Pshew!...you can say that again, EJ--it just goes on and on...hahaha
We did some more planting-out of flowers today and more weeding. We also lifted more spuds. There are more large tubers this time. I am going to need that tater space soon for my Purple Sprouting. The sooner the better, actually.

 

MS 'T', I am surprized that you have the same equipment there as we do here. That blue-plastic trug we had to look and look for before finding it. Those knepads are terrific. I sometimes iuse the ones that the people wear who place the stones in streets and driveways. They are bettter in terms of comfort, but the straps cut into the back of my something awful.