Gradual Success with Strawberries

Good video as always, I didn't realise that you also grow perennial plants 😅 I think it's interesting to hear something about that for a change. Btw, are those grape wines and a peach tree behind you?
What other fruits do you grow?

Good show Bruce, I'm widening my strawberry spacing to 2ft for next yr, the closed canopy at 18" spacing made harvesting and management difficult in my raised beds, I also find cutting everything back the best management technique, removing the chopped straw mulch to reapply compost before reapplying the mulch seems to work very well for me, fresh straw always brings more grain seeds to weed out, I also found the Cambridge variety the least desired from my 3 varieties, I don't really have slug issues, my main pest was woodlice and a large black beetle I havn't identified, probably due to the woodchip compost I use on perennials, maybe the beetles eat the slug/eggs and since they didn't really do much damage to the crop I won't try to manage them!

Why is it surprising to see someone's younger version :)

As someone who also analyses what he's growing and only (the first) part way into my strawberry journey this was an interesting video to watch - thanks Bruce.
One thing I don't think that was mentioned was taste, which varieties and what contributes to it, maybe that'll come another year. I started off with some cheap locally bought ones of unknown variety, they don't seem to taste great or be huge, but fruit early, especially in the PT. I then bought a known everbearing which tasted much better, but (it is only their first year) only cropped once then stopped.
Amongst many other things i'll be buying some late fruiters next year to try and produce a broader supply.
To grow them in the PT I may try the gutter method mounted on the wall, but I think normal cheap gutter is too shallow for the roots. The advantage there is they're out of the way, the fruits hang down the front, watering should be easier and also be easy to tend to without bending down.
I'm pondering over getting some larger (150mm?) diameter pipe and slicing it open to use instead of gutter for the extra depth.

Thank you for taking the time to honestly document your success and failures and sharing them with us.

We have tasted this strawberries and they were really yummy.

First of all, Thank you for your interesting videos. And I'm really sorry, but it seems it doesn't matter what we doing or not doing with vegetables and fruits. I will explain myself. I watched you last video and now about strawberries. I live in Lithuania, should be different seeds, completely different weather and for some reasons absolutely same results . I live three years on my land and only this year we had enormous amount of strawberries and tomatoes. And I can assure you I did absolutely nothing to achieve that. I'm really lazy gardener, so my vegetables and fruits full of weeds, I don't use fertilizer at all and so on. One thing that I do in autumn is heavy mulching my garden with grass. That's it. I don't want to jump to any conclusions why this happening, but for me it's really strange situation....

Thanks for the great vid! I had my first good crop this year out of 5 years of trying to get it right. bug, birds, and deer have give me the most trouble, netting made the crop for me. this year I have made frames with hardware cloth covers hoping to do even better next year.

Great video, thanks. I only have a 6ft x 3ft raised bed of strawberries containing only 15 plants so I am on a vastly smaller scale to you. Each year, I select the plants that I want to propagate runners from and I allow those plants to produce 3 or 4 runners. I remove all the runners from the other plants. In mid-August, I cut all the foliage back and remove all the plants that have had 4 summers and replace with plants that were taken from runners last year. I then apply some fertility (homemade compost). The new plants, from this year's runners, I pot up and, next spring/summer, I remove all flowers from them so that they.focus on getting to be bigger/stonger plants to replace the 4 year old plants in August. Works very well for me but I can see this would be an awful lot of work on your scale.

200 lbs very nice! Have you considered Alpine strawberries? I think they thrive in cooler weather and theres some varieties that dont put out runners.

Bruce, you tease! I was so excited to her more about your perennial garden! If you ever decide to revisit the idea, you'll def have my interest :)

Great info as always, although I was a bit unclear about your variety ranking. If you could list them in the video in the future, or in the video description, that would be much appreciated! I think they were the ones you showed on screen when listing the two dissapointments and three successes, but it was a bit unclear. I'm wondering with your slug problems if you ever notice any hedgehogs around? Keep up the great work!

Quick question, is there a reason you add compost now instead of in the spring? I see it recommended more often as a spring application, so is it a matter of convenience for you?

Can you share the organic slug pellet name?

In Florida, strawberries are planted as an annual, transplanted bare root in October with harvest starting in February. They usually die in the summer rains. I've found that I can take them through the summer by providing solid shade and rain protection directly over the plants. I still pull the entire bed and replant every October. Drip tape on a timer and a row cover gets them through the winter frosts and the dry spring. Strawberries are far and away the most profitable part of our market garden. We make more than enough selling bare root runner plants in October to justify the elaborate set up we use to grow them. We don't even bother to sell the fruit separately. The commercial growers from Plant City flood the market two weeks before our first berries are ready. We just add the berries to our regular market basket deliveries. They make it really easy to sell Kale and Spinach.

We tried hanging baskets of strawberries. We had all the troubles you had and then found that they sold poorly.

Limiting the amount of water you give strawberries will make them sweeter,
and yes, you're supposed to cull plants after the 4th year

Your berry patch is impressive! Here in the US, hay and other grain crops are sprayed with persistent herbicides that kill all broad leaf plants. These herbicides even persist in animal manure. Years ago, the best strawberries I grew had a large feeding with horse manure. Today, I hesitate to bring in any hay or manure for fear of killing the soil for years to come. Organic hay and manure is hard to come by! The agencies in the US meant to protect us are corrupted by big corporations who look to profit and not to protect.

Inspiring!

Which three of the five strawberries faired well?

Thank you

Really interesting, thanks for sharing. Anyone know what the drip irrigation fertiliser attachment is called?

I tried growing strawberries in 1.5m and 2m towers made out of PVC pipes and the plants failed, they dry out too fast, don't do well in hot 30C - 40C weather, the soil in the tower becomes hydrophobic and cannot hold any water, it flows down instantly.

Container gardening or vertical gardening is very challenging and hard. The biggest problem with these is that the soil becomes extremely dry to the point that it cannot absorb any water, it just flows out, runs off. They may do well only in shady areas with only indirect light, not sun light.

I also have a perennial weed in my strawberry patch, only it's mugwort instead of grass. It's very hard to remove without accidentally uprooting the strawberries themselves. I didn't want to have to redo the whole strawberry patch, but I might have no choice at this point.

I have learned that from one year to the other the same strawberry plants might deliver more or less tasteful strawberries. It really depends on a lot of different factors, the weather being one of them influencing the outcome a lot. In other words, don't immediately remove those strawberries that have a less interesting taste, wait a least for 2 or 3 years before decided on keeping them or not. Also some people might prefer one variety, while other prefer another one.

"and other liquid forms of fertility" If you know, you know.

It's been over a decade since my failed experiment with strawberries. You have inspired me to try them again. Thanks, Bruce.

Hard cutting back the foliage in mid August to manage slugs, runners and to rejuvenate growth and at the same time add fertility and mulch is what you do for June bearing varieties, correct? I just wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything!

We grow day neutral strawberries and haven’t figured out the best approach yet. Anyone?

I love how informative your videos are

Bruce doesn't pee. He excretes a liquid form of fertility.

Thanks for this. I use raw sheeps wool as a mulch, it works great, suppressing weeds and deterring pests.

Have you considered growing strawberries from misted tips? You plant them in a tunnel in mid aug and you harvest april-may. The plants then removed so kind of treated like a vegetable and it can work well with tunnel rotations.

I use bottomless pots to grow my early strawberries in the polytunnel. This keeps them off the ground (safe from slugs) and still rooting into the bed itself so easier to manage the watering with no drying out. When harvest is complete i take them out and pop on the ground outside where they can sit happily all winter until i bring them in again in the spring

Each year for the past 6 or 7, I have "tried" to grow Strawberries. It is, sadly, one of the plants I fail at, yearly. One of the biggest issues, is slugs, and second, is each fruit, once it goes even slightly red, often gets ONE bight taken out, by either squirrels, or chipmunks.

Great video!
Does the main plant produce more than one year? I thought if you cut off all of the runners, you wouldn't get anything the following year.

I have a "shelf" above my (permanent) strawberry bed (some left over metal guttering from an old greenhouse). The bed, 4' wide' is in my greenhouse. Shelf only holds 2 plants wide. I have additional strawberries in pots outside. The indoor ones fruit first; once the outdoor pots come into flower I bring them in and put them on the shelf. Once indoors that avoids any late frosts; no rain damage, shelf keeps the slugs off, and gives me a succession crop (after the indoor ones). Don't have to bend to pick them! I have leaky hose along the top of the pots, any excess falls onto the plants in the permanent bed below

Have you tried to grow strawberries that produce all year ?

Thanks for sharing your experience, been stuggling to enhance our strawberry plantings in the garden.

I grow mine in 24- 36 in high, 4 ft diameter wire fencing rings. They have rotten wood bottoms to retain water & are landscape fabric lined. Each ring has 12+ in of real dirt in addition to compost. They elevation does make the plants dry out faster than in ground, but it cuts down on slugs & other pest issues. I do have to cover with netting. I plant along the S, SE & SW vertical sides. Having them elevated makes the easier to pick & maintain. (This bending over crap must stop.) In winter, the rings get cut back & mounded with shredded leaves. I've lost some plants to brutal winter freezes, but overall good in US zone 6 (now 7.)

commercial growers use raised rows that are quite high, with black plastic cover and drip irrigation of course.
for the growbags i suggest trying 50% concreting sand as growing medium, to improve watering and drainage.

4th year strawberries produce many many small strawberries. I haven't made it to 5th year strawberries yet. I just rotate out 1/3 of the bed every year.

My strawberries were honestly the worst I’ve ever had this year! No fruit/flowers and lots of runners! Need to do lots more fertiliser next year.

I have had good success buying the cheap plastic strawberries and putting them in my strawberry patch as soon as it starts to flower. The birds, deer, and groundhogs got fooled and I barely have any predation of the real berries.

Thank you very much for your videos man. Id be interested in a video about how you try to adapt to climate change.

I would have never thought of cutting back my strawberries so much, but your video has convinced me! I'll go cut back one of my 2 beds this year and see how it compares to the other through the next 12 months.

Great video. My failures mirror yours over the last 10 years. Three years ago I suddenly understood the need for regular compost additions, weed free surroundings (no slug hides), good simple netting and regular production of new plants. I've eliminated straw as I think it helps slugs. It's satisfying to finally produce good strawberries after years of poor crops.

I have had good success with giant strawberries using compost tea made with fish and urine, I am also having good success with potted strawberries by using woodchips in the bottom and top of the pots as well as a reservior, my berries almost never grow mold and just dehydrate as they ripen.

i have used rocks painted red around my strawberries to great success keeping birds off. they peck the rocks in early season and ignore the fruit later thinking that they are just more rocks. also at about the 5th year, you can dig up the plants, separate the crowns and replant. this resets the 5 year timer. you do NOT need to get new plants. best production seems to come years 2 through 4.

Do you only grow june bearing? Everbearing can produce for almost the whole growing season. Mara de bois is a very popular one.