Strawberry beds

[garden-angel]

Hi all,
Just been allocated an allotment which has four large beds. The beds have been dug over by the last tennant except one which has strawberries in it. Would it be best to dig these out and start again or should I just leave them. The plants look fairly mature with runners going out across the patch. The middle of the bed is quite densely packed so I'm not sure whether to thin them out into rows, leave them be or dig 'em out altogether? New to all this veggy growing lark so some free strawberries next year seems like a bonus?

[bario1]

You might want to dig out a quarter/third of the mature plants and replace them with the best of the new runners - that way you can stagger the life-cycle of the plants so you always have some up-and-comers. If you do that each year you'll always have a mix of mature and immature plants, and never need to replace the lot in one go. Does that make any sense?

p.s. welcome to the forum

[Alison]

I'd pot up some runners and make a new bed with fresh plants

[garden-angel]

Thank you both ...it defo makes sense ...so i'll pot up some runners and re-plant next spring and in the meantime i'll remove some old ones. Still wading through tons of ragwort and bindweed growing between the beds Still trying to get to grips with the heavy clay soil here after the last 47 years in Cornwall - it's like mining!

[ESBkevin]

Strawberry plants produce well for 3 or at best 4 years so replacing with runners 1/3 at a time makes sense. Whilst you can feed the current bed well it is advisable to move onto fresh soil for best results to avoid depleting nutrients and having a build up of bugs and disease (as you do with most crops on rotation). In your position I would assess what you have and dig up enough 'younger' plants to serve as year 2 and 3 and enough runners to be year one and start a new bed. Then dig over the current bed and start it with something else like brassicas or aliums.

[Snadger]

I've just potted up 24 plants, a mixture of runners and fresh plants. My way of picking which to use was decided by which ones were growing fresh new visible roots Thye are in modules in the greenhouse ready to be planted out when i decide where i am putting them!