I want bigger strawberries!

My strawberry patch is in its 4th year and produces very well. It receives sufficient sun exposure. While some of the berries are a fairly decent size, most of them are not. I hate to admit that I've not given my strawberry patch very much in return. I'd like to start fertilizing in hopes of getting larger berries. Most of these plants are everbearing but currently do not do much in the fall. Can anybody recommend the best fertilizer for strawberries? Also do any of you know if this would increase the size of the berries and give a better return from the everbearers? Thanks!

Read the sections on renovating. Strawberry plantings can remain productive for 3 - 5 years if the plants are vigorous. Yours probably aren't in good shape. The size of the berries are an indication of plant vigor. Without food and water, not much grows. Try to renovate the existing bed, but remember strawberry plants have to be replaced every few years anyway. If the plants are too far gone, it may be best to start with new vigorous plants and follow best care practices for the best return.

Any fertilizer with the correct amount of nitrogen, phosphates and potassium will be OK. One with added micronutrients would be better.

http://www.umext.maine.edu/onlinepubs/htmpubs/2067.htm
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/strawberries/growing.html

I'd try watering more first. I have everbearers as well and they seem to produce many good-size berries. I have a pretty cheap & easy to assemble mist/drip watering system on them. (I have a mixed bed with strawberries, asparagus, blueberries & assorted annual veges all mixed together) I have pretty low gallon-per-hour heads on the system, but it goes off for 15 min every morning about 4-5am or so - enough to soak in some & just barely start to run off.

I planted 2 paperbark birches last year - same size, same time - but the one planted in the watered bed is twice+ as tall as the one not in the watered bed. I imagine the effect would be similar for the strawberries.

I paid $30+/- for the timer and probably $50+/- on the rest of the system - pipes, heads, etc - so it wasn't even terribly expensive. The bed is one long row about 3 ft x 100+ ft, so I needed a long section of pipe which increased the cost a little bit.

Bettydee and BackyardZoo -- I appreciate this useful information that you have provided. I know my plants could use more water. I tend to neglect once I've taken the berries! I had always heard that plants need to be replaced every few years. I'm going to try fertilizing now to see what happens with the everbearers and will consider re-doing the patch next spring.

My father-in-law raised strawberries on his farm. He always pinched the blossoms off the first year because he said it made for bigger berries. I can remember being pregnant and sitting in the patch gorging myself. Needless to say I made myself sick.

Kyjoy, there's nothing quite like a home-grown strawberry! I hope you still enjoy them!

Okay, beginner question here: I'm thinking of planting a strawberry bed (a couple, actually, tri-star and some alpines in the second bed). If the plants are good for 4 years, what about the new plants that come from the runners (or reseeding)? Do you just rip up everything after four years and start from scratch, or do you remove the oldest plants that produce less than their babies, while letting the second and third generation plants continue to grow?

Strawberry need soil high in organic matter. In four years that organic matter will have broken down and disappeared and should be replaced. You can use new daughter plants as long as they are healthy. I would discard plants more than a year old and buy replacements. Carefully dig up the plants you plan to use and set them aside in a protected shady place. Prepare the soil with new organic matter. Gently wash the old soil off the roots and plant in the new soil. Be sure to discard any diseased plants. http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/plantsci/hortcrop/h16w.htm

Alternately, I 'mulch' with a good inch or so of peat moss to add organic material.

The peat moss seems to work well on the weeds - smothering the ones I put it over (with the exception of that blasted bermuda grass) and being loose enough to give up new weed seedlings with extremely low effort on my part. It also works well in conjunction with the daily irrigation to get those daughter plants going well.

Besides, there's really no way that I'd be able to tell how old each plant is now. Some of my 'daughter' plants that I KNOW just started this spring are about as big as some of my original plants that I put in last year.

I put in about a dozen plants last year and this year we are averaging 1/2 to a full pint per day - and that's even allowing the birds & slugs their share, as I don't really do much to deter them (ok...I don't do *anything* to deter them besides picking & discarding the half-eaten fruits, since we can't eat that many strawberries anyway..) Pretty much the only thing I do is make sure the runners get re-directed back into the bed.

Disclaimer: I am VERY much a hobby gardener & have 2 preschoolers. I'm not trying for huge berries, I'm trying for enough that my kids can snack without it getting overrun with weeds in the little time I have to take care of it. I have *one* bed - with a mix of strawberries, blueberries, asparagus, and some annual vegetables all interspersed together and I'm trying to encourage some irish moss under everything for some 'green mulch'. My goal is as much 'tasty snacking' as I can get with 5+/- minutes a day and an occasional hour or so on a weekend when I can. And so far, my small garden seems to be doing fairly well, with good-size fruits & veges. However, those looking for 'prize-winning' harvests may not find my advice at all worthwhile... ;-)

That last link I included says that old plants have black wiry roots. New plants have light colored roots. I haven't really paid attention to what the roots look like.

Backyard zoo, what kind of strawberry do you grow? I have ozark beauty and do not like anything about it.

Oh, geez....racks brain....

Maybe 'Eversweet'? I honestly don't know. I know there's a mix, because I got some from Raintree & some from Walmart. Like I said, I wasn't too concerned about the berry size. I know I got the everbearers from Raintree, because I wanted my boys to be able to pick them all summer long, but that's the only 'requirement' I had. The Walmart ones were just bought to fill in a few holes, since I found I needed more than I had ordered from Raintree to cover the area I wanted to cover.

Sorry I can't be of more help, but I honestly have no idea..