Planting Strawberries

[GrannyG]

I'm dreaming berry sweet dreams, strawberry shortcake, strawberry jam, strawberry pie, dehydrated strawberries. Got them planted yesterday, watering them good, they are leafing out slowly, just can't wait !

[crazy1]

Good goin' there granny

[Adeltia]

How many is enough- and is it full sun-. Mine all died last year- tooooo much heat. Adelita

[trudy]

I broke down and bought a couple plants a few weeks ago, just to try again. Strawberries aren't my strong point. I find it easier to find a pic your own field. Depending on what all your going to do with them would determine how many plants. I would think. The fella where I picked mine from said they would produce up to around July, my first picking was mid March I think. So a fairly long season. trudy

[douglas]

I was cleaning out my flower bed and noticed alot of new plants from runners last year, will these Babbie's still make straw berries if I transplant them this year

[jeanette]

i planted june bearers about three years ago.. they are finally starting to take off, the last couple of years here have been bad for strawberries.. even the professional growers didn't have any..

[trudy]

From what the fella told me and I've also heard that the mother plant will send off runners (daughters) then the mother plant will die but the daughters will bear the next years fruit. And the process continues. But I can't say from experience only what I've been told and read about. trudy

[douglas]

Thanks trudy I'll just keep them well watered to see what happens

[Adeltia]

you think it helps if partly shaded? Adelita

[trudy]

No more than I know about strawberry growing I will leave that to the experts.......Phil, Greg? I want to think that they need full sun to reach there potential. If you have enough to experiment perhaps put one or two where it gets morning sun, evening shade an see how it does. I would think they would need at least 5-6 hrs of sun though. trudy

[chickenfarmer]

Always have ours in direct sunlight... that and plenty of water

[Compost Pharmer]

Never had luck growing them berries. Tried growing in both sun and partial shade. Do good for a while, then they dry up and die. Suspect it may be to hot here in the summer.

[Pharmer Phil]

gar said:

Never had luck growing them berries. Tried growing in both sun and partial shade. Do good for a while, then they dry up and die. Suspect it may be to hot here in the summer.

I visited with a feller once from Texas, the southern part, and he said they grew strawberries as a annual there? planted them in the fall, and took them out afta they fruited...aside from that, yer soil may have too high a salt (saline) count..or a tad too much clay, but seeing how it's you Greg, I can't see the latter being the problem!

[Compost Pharmer]

Phil, you are probably right. To much clay. Trying to break it up by adding compost, when tilling, and mulch on the top during the growing season. Garden sure is looking good. So are the weeds. As soon as I can find some 'good' mulch, I will remove the weeds, put down newspaper and the mulch on top.

[biscombe]

Anyone had luck with seed/germinating strawberries? I gave up and bought 10 plants! will save the runners!! crap eh??!!!

[Talks With Beagles]

A couple years ago, I looked up about strawberries. There are a lot of different opinions about the best way to grow them. Michigan strawberries are supposed to be the best, but nobody around here grows them to sell any more. There is probably a reason for that.

I bought a half dozen plants just to try it out. They didn't produce anything the first year, but I guess they weren't supposed to. They put out runners, which I left alone. The next year, we had a few berries and lots more runners. Everything seemed to survive the winter all right, so we should have more berries this year.

What most people do around here is plant them in rows and then just let them grow wild. When the parent plants stop producing, they run them over with a roto-tiller, making the old row the space, and the old space the new row. I didn't leave enough room for mine, and now they are invading the grass and crawling off into the woods. We have wild strawberries too, but they are really small and hardly worth the effort to pick. I suppose my plants will run off with the wild pack and revert. Then again they might improve the wild gene pool somewhat. I may select some of the best and brightest and start another colony where there is more room, but first I have to make more room.