There was discussion elsewhere about 'Jewel' strawberries. Last year I planted a large vegetable garden, and a lot of the veggies didn't agree with my system (I have food sensitivities), so this year I'm tailoring the garden to the things that didn't bother me and concentrating on those.

However, that leaves some room for other things. I'd like to plant strawberries again. I had them years ago, but planted them in one of those shoddy pyramid beds and they were overtaken by quack grass. Now I have some nice raised beds that are mulched all around with weed barriers and chip paths, the beds are 16" high. And I'd like to plant Jewel strawberries in it.

Are they like other berries in that it is a good idea to leave room to stake the runners over to an adjacent row to establish them there for when the parent plants get pulled out in a few seasons? How many years can you figure on for a plant producing before they decline?

-- Anonymous, April 14, 2001

Answers

Hey Julie! You can plant the berries in rows and pin all runners to one side or the other; but in a raised bed, I think I would plant them in staggered rows 18" to 24" apart each way. I would then starburst the runners - think an X with a line through the middle. You can mark the mother plant with a popsicle stick or something and then go back in and cut it out with one of those snake-fang weeder thingies after a few years.

I don't like my commercial berry rows any wider than one foot, as that is the width that I can straddle easily. I bend from the waist to pick - any wider and I would fall on my bean! I don't try to save runners and train them to one side or the other in the commercial patch as I rotate after three bearing years to a patch where no berries have grown before to break down any disease cycle that might get started. What I lose on buying new plants, I save on chemicals. Can't use very many chemicals because of respiratory intolerances, so just don't use any. In a home patch, I would just keep an eye out for disease and continue to use my runners to renew the bed, or to start other beds for rotation purposes. It's pretty easy to tell when berry plants are worn down - just pull the ones that don't look as healthy and train runners to replace them.

Good luck with your berries - hope you like Jewel as well as I do!

-- Anonymous, April 14, 2001

Thanks for the advice! I went and picked up some plants at Jung's this weekend, and altho it's maybe a bit early around here to be putting them in the ground, I'm thinking of doing it this week since the forecast says temps in the 60's daytimes and the 40's nights (hard to believe, it was SNOWING out tonight while the spring peepers were peeping away in the bogs), then putting mulch and a floating row cover over them.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2001

Don't leave your mulch close to the plants for too long, as it will keep the ground from warming up and making the little roots want to grow. My strawberries are blooming like crazy - supposed to get down to the 40's tonite - no problem. They'll probably be ripe before I get the weeds out of them this year!! I'd rather garden!! Have to take care of them though, as Jan and Mike (buddy/neighbor Mike and spouse) tell me they aren't going to have any for the store this year. Ugh!! Glad I took vacation (yeah, right - vacation!) the first two weeks of June!

Pop is howling, but I am going to mulch half the rows post picking season with the composted sawdust/manure that I'm hauling home from the sale barn. If they do good, I'll mulch them all with it. Bad, well, I'll still have 10 rows! Pop says "I ain't crawling through shit to pick strawberries!" Right, like it won't all be broken down by next picking season!! Gotta love him, 72 years old and out there crawling down the rows with the best of 'em. Best salesman (slash BSer!) I've got!

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2001

I was kind of planning to put down black paper mulch again this year. It did a great job last year of suppressing weeds (altho the mice frolicked under it!) and conserving moisture. Then I thought I'd put down the straw long enough to protect them from late spring freezes. We seem to be getting 70's and 80's in April (thanks, Global Warming! ) and then in May it goes back to freezing nights, sometimes into June. Then pull back the straw (or compost it -- darn rodents!) when the weather warmed up some.

I haul home horse manure/shavings from our barn that has been stacked out in the woods a year or two, which is older than the stuff you're talking about probably, Polly. However, when it gets that old, it really is almost odorless, and what odor it does have smells like good soil, not a thing like "eau d'Barn" anymore. It's nice and fluffy stuff too, mostly. I have toyed with the idea of getting rabbits just for their unique contribution to gardening, but I have to think that one over a bit harder before I commit to their long term care! Meanwhile, I look at the pet guinea pig's production and think about adding that to the garden...

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2001