Greendumb:

Grow your strawberries on heavy black plastic, the kind (6 mil.) that is sold at Home Depot or Lowes. Skip the straw, sand, and mulch. Lay down plastic and cut an X where you want to plant, then plant. If you want runners to root, cut a slit at the leaf rosette, and pin it down to the soil. It will root. Black plastic also stops weeds and retains moisture. Roots are kept warm, while the superstructure of the plant is kept dry, as it should be. Insects do not prosper in this environment, and you can keep a planting like this going for about 4 seasons. No strawberry patch can be kept going longer, mostly because of weeds.

I grew a strawberry called the Gurney's Whopper, and it was very large in the initial flush, but with watery, washed out flavor. Hope yours are different. Quinault never produced much for me, which has been typical of my everbearer experience, but the few that it did bear tasted good.

Mulching strawberries is an invitation to critters.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VAt

Greendumb,

I seriously doubt pill bugs/earwigs are the problem, but they may be symptomatic of other issues since they feed primarily on decayed matter. Since the damage comes at night, I suspect slugs. Trap them in beer or make a nightly raid with salt shaker in hand.

I've never been impressed with the flavor of large-fruited strawberries--altho- I hear Cabot is pretty good. Honeoye has the largest fruit of any I grow, and it is just average in size.

Brook

Thanks for the advice.I had another person here in town called Fruitnut in this forum also tell me to use the black plastic.Brook-fortunatly we have no slugs.I have actually caught the culprits in the act on many occasions,hence the different mulching attempts to rid my bed of them to no avail.Your also right about the big strawberries.Do you have any suggestion on varieties.I have some Alexandria seeds to try.Never grew from seeds before.The Quinalts are actually very nice in size and flavor.

when them become a problem for me I use traps. I take a cup or left over vegetable can and bury it so the rim is right at soil line. Then put about an inch or so of beer in the bottom. they go in and die happy.

Use Sluggo or Escargo snail and slug bait. Non-toxic and very effective. Sprinkle and forget about it.

Could also be birds early AM before you get up to see them. I paint rocks red and put them out before fruiting. Birds learn fast that rocks are not tasty and leave the fruit alone. Also non-toxic LOL.

Here in the Piney Woods the answer is obvious- pine straw. Our nemesis is the Mockingbird and we eat a lot of berries before they completely ripen.

Ozark Beauty is the best-tasting everbearer I ever had, they're large and wedge-shaped. Last ones I ordered turned out to be some smallish sour conical-shaped variety, so the real thing may be hard to find.