We are a small operation. Mostly growing to share with family and friends. We rotate by clipping and planting the runners. For our purposes, it's ideal. After about 3 years we pull the crown. If an original crown isn't producing great berries, we pull it before it produces runners so that we don't keep replicating a "bad" berry. Likewise, if we have a really good berry, we mark the runners and collect seeds to replant. We easily have about 150 crowns from what started as 53. All will be quality berries by the process we've discovered works best for us.
I raised strawberries for years and I whole heartedly disagree with replanting them every year. My second year plants always had bigger strawberries and more strawberries. I never used plastic and just mulched with straw and they were very hardy. The plants will spread from the runners and then I would transplant them in the fall to new rows.
Love it! I need help with a small patch but you know so much! I wish you did one on a home patch! Mine is about 15x15 feet and i just moved into this 121 year old. It's covered in straw from previous owner but i have no clue how to care for it!! I'll keep you tubing but i love your info!
Wow it’s unbelievable that it’s cheaper to pull the strawberries out every year and then replant them, and the cost of the labour and equipment to replant and the cost of the plugs. It’s unreal to think it’s better in the long run because isn’t it just robbing the soil of nutrients and the reason you have had so much problem with disease because the plants have never had the ability to grow and develop resistance to the diseases in your specific area. Seems to me your working hard and not letting the produce work for you. I do appreciate your transparency and I’m no grower or expert just an average person who used to pick strawberries as a kid in the summer to make some extra $$ they used to pay us per pint that we picked, I still remember the farmer telling us we were welcome to eat as many strawberries as we liked as we picked and as a kid I thought that was so strange why would he allow that. So one day I asked him and he said it’s simple math, I looked at him perplexed, he said well the more you pick the more money you make right? I said yes, and he said so the more you eat the less money you get? I said yes and he said trust me by the end of the summer you won’t even want to look at a strawberry let alone eat any! He said either way when the strawberry is ready to be picked it needs to be picked it can’t rot on the vine so the more that are picked the more flowers can come back and grow more strawberries so if you pick and eat them I’m getting free labour from you because you can only pick so many strawberries in an hour and the more you eat the less you are getting per hour for which means it’s much cheaper for me to get the same amount of strawberries picked and off the plants. He said he makes a lot more per pint then he pays us. I walked away and scratched my head, I learned a lot back then and this farmer had strawberries planted on his land for more then 50 years and he suppressed the weeds with straw and he said even though the second and third year he doesn’t make as much per pint but everything he makes is pure profit because there is very little labour involved other then putting straw on them at the end of the year. I know at that time there were university students that were doing a lot of research and I’m sure they pulled some of the third year plants and separated them and planted them in another area of the farm and they would act as if they were first year plants? No? I’m sure it was more of a self-sustaining business and wasn’t anywhere near as labour intensive. Anyway you may want to check out some strawberry growers in Ontario Canada because they have been growing strawberries for many decades and have tons of experience and I’m sure would be willing to discuss these things with you. Just another idea for you. They also grow raspberries, blueberries and blackberries. 🥰🙏🏻🇨🇦 wishing you a successful crop in 2021!!
Gonna get me on of those new shirts, done got the old ones and the hat. You da bomb man I really enjoy all the information you give, but I would like to know what kind of fertigation you use on your berries blue and straw.
Will you make a video about what nutrition that you feed your strawberry plants. When do you start givin them feed then is there a feeding cycle that you follow afterwards?
The plants are basically new if you can break off new crowns from the old roots. Just dig up all your old plants, go through them and pick the healthy ones and replant them with just the smaller roots.
How about strawberries in 90-95 degree weather but under the shade during that time point? Im going to plant 40-50 plants for a garden and they will get 5 hours of morning sun and then in the shade the rest of the day.
I am working towards doing a pick-your- own strawberry patch by putting strawberries under plastic. My big hang up is what should be put between the rows of plastic so the weeds don't take over the isles? Do you plant any kind of short grass or do you just mow off the growing weeds every week?
Is white dutch clover an option? It never gets higher that 8 in. It may help with nitrogen fixing & overall pollinator support. Bees might ve an issue for U Pick. Mowing right before customers hit the rows would tamp down bee encounters.
Regarding replacing strawberries every year, does the productivity depend on new plugs grown from seeds? Or could it be from digging up old plants and separating it out into a bunch of small plants? I am just thinking of my backyard garden. I would like my strawberries to produce more.
Yes, this works, and I do it every year. Try and get rid of the old dried roots and it is basically a new plant. I replant my strawberries every spring. I basically triple the number of plants every year by replanting.
I am surprised about this. I expect double the crop in the second year. Thought I presume for you it would take a lot of water to stop them being fried in the summer.
Replanting strawberries every year is a pretty big mistake. I grow several varieties including Albions and I'm in the hill country south east of Buffalo, NY. I get worse weather than Buffalo. Strawberries do survive the harsh winter. Once they go dormant in early winter, it doesn't matter how bad the weather is, they come back in the spring. Second, strawberry plants reach their peak of production their third year, not the first or second. Production is mostly based age of the plant and pruning the runners. A three year old plant with the runners constantly pruned gives the maximum production of that plant. You also absolutely do not need to use row covers. I'm sorry but you're giving out a lot of bad information in this video, you should take it down.
