Strawberry Defoliation Time

Today I got in my Carhardt Field coat with mismatched hood and dug the strawberrys from 2 pots in this lovely weather. Man, was that a learning experience. I did not know they were rhizome bearing plants. What I ended up doing was removing all but the plants at the tip of the rhizome, and planting the ones that had no rhizome as they were connected along the surface. The ones hanging down the sides got put in a little soil, right on top and I composted all those rhizomes and what appeared to be the older plants.

That was the biggest trick, figuring which were the young plants from the old, but I thinned by about 50% and the hori-hori was indispensable for the job.

Sounds like a productive day. I'm going to do leaves this weekend. The magnolia just shuddered.

I run my rototiller through the bed cutting up 75% of the live plants so I can have a harvest next year. Tough to do but it works for lots of plants to produce next year. Fruit requires tough action. Plants love stability but fruit needs attack!

I always get the best harvest the year after I move strawberries. They seem to really rise to the challenge of getting their roots disturbed. This is the first year for these guys under the roses and they are much fuller and perkier than where I moved them from. My next plan for this bed is to dig it out beyond the fence for more berries/roses so I don't fight the under-fence weeds so much.

I have strawberries around the gardens. I do nothing to them, they just do their thing. They are every-bearing and we brought them with us from Seattle in '87.

Excellent. I just learned about everbearing strawberries, and may look in the spring for a few. These were given by a friend, and have only produced 5-6 berries total each year. I heard it was due to my not removing old and planting only new plants each year.

I have ever-bearing too. And after the first year they grow no berries if left alone. They do spread and the "new" growth does produce but I don't have 80 acres to grow one plant. When I chop up between plants I can keep them in at least 1 acre and the production is awesome!

Ah, mine are in a wine keg, and a pot nearly that size, and I cut them back from crammed full to 2-3 inches between young plants. Hope it was enough as we don't have a big enough yard for more.

I ordered some Mara des Bois for next spring, and I'm trying to figure out how to keep them producing. Someone talked about them here on DG and they sounded wonderful but I had no idea how they really tasted. Then coincidentally when we were in France last month a woman was selling them at a marché so I bought some to try. They really are terrific, so I sent for twenty-five plants when we got home. I just don't know how to avoid having to replace them every year or two.

I have no idea what mine are called but they are good. They don't get as big as the ones I was used to in Seattle. One thing I know is you can rototill 1/2 the berries and get a great crop all summer.

At what point do you rototill them? And does that make the new plants that come back up produce later on in the season?

Do you all remove the blossoms the first year?

I do it when I have time mostly in early spring. The blossoms are few in the old plant so the only blossems are on the new. I don't get strawberries here until July through Sept/Oct depending on weather. I rototill the perimeter I want and then take a path through the old plants so there is about a 2+ft path between the few I leave. Maybe I should rototill today. I think I will and then my plants will be blooming earlier. Good Idea.