Alan:

Strawberries are usually planted in early spring. Spring is when bareroot, bundled strawberry plants are available. You may also be able to plant them in fall, but I have never tried that. Since your climate is quite mild, they may be able to root and begin to grow over the winter.

Pinching off blossoms the first season is usually done to encourage the formation of new runners. I don't see much point in removing both blossoms and runners. Truth be told, I don't see much point in removing blossoms at all. They are what make strawberries. I wouldn't remove runners either if you want to increase the numbers of your plants and the productivity of your bed -- but within reason. Do not allow a bed to become overcrowded with runners and new plants. If they grow too thickly, the berries will be shaded and consequently smaller. About 6-8 inches apart is a good spacing in a bed -- far enough to allow good air circulation and sun penetration.

I never allow a strawberry plant to go much over 2 years before removing it in favor of a vigorous new runner. Older plants tend to produce smaller berries and fewer of them. You can spot an older plant by the length of the crown above ground.

There is no need to use straw or any other mulch over winter in South Alabama. I never use it here, and I am much further north than you. Mulching strawberries is only helpful in very cold climates where the ground freezes solid, then can heave and break roots during thaws. Mulch around strawberry plants is the ideal environment to hatch out slugs, pillbugs, and strawberry beetles that can ruin your berries. Keep mulch away from the plants. I grow my strawberries on black plastic, which works very well for me. No weeds, no diseases, and no bugs.

I have grown a lot of different strawberry varieties here, but Ozark Beauty was a total bust for me. I hope this variety does better for you.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

I tried Ozark Beauty many years ago. They produced nothing in May/June and oats bugs ate them up in August. However, I didn't have a lot of bug trouble this August with another variety.

Concerning straw.....I don't normally use it either...just a light leaf covering. Once when I used straw, I had a bad case of wheat the next year...no fun. Again, that wheat was likely unusual, but it makes me think three or four times before usuing straw again.

Thanks for the help. I will adjust my plan. I'm experimenting with the fall planting. I have an idea of using red plastic dinner plates on a few plants with a hole in the middle for the plant and some small holes over the surface for water to drain through. Two reasons: 1. I've heard that red plastic increases yeild.(Sounds crazy) 2. It may help keep the bugs and slugs away as well as weeds around the plant.

Alan, I don't think there will be any problem with fall planting in your climate --- it is warm enough there that they will be able to get pretty well established in the fall and it may even be better, they will take off in the spring.

I've never hard about red but anything to keep weeds away is a good idea. I just mowed down my main bed because I was too busy to keep up with all the weeds this year. It also was getting diseased. In a few years I will try again, and you can bet I will have some physical weed barrier in place!

Scott

Strawberries are the one crop I never put a weed block around. The new runners donÂt have a place to attach to and root. The pros will put down a weed block, pinching off the runners, and dig all the plants up after a productive season, fumigate the soil. But for those of us with just a small raised bed, the new runners, and their new runners, can keep the bed productive for several years. The weeds are a nuisance, but nothing works better than just yanking them out. Also, a thick, loose professional mulch blend around the plants is thick enough to block many new weeds, but permit the runners to root.
I did use an unused strip of weed block propped up on stakes as a shade for the strawberry bed, when we were having 100-108 degree weather a few weeks back. My Mara des Bois strawberries did not like the heat blast at all, made their own mulch with browned out leaves. They seem to be reviving with the cooler weather, are sending up new, green leaves. .
IÂve heard about using red mulch with tomatoes, to make them more productive, but not with strawberries. Red mulch fabric was sold at heirloom tomato sales.

Altadenamara:

Here's a tip for you: Take a pocket knife and slip the new crown forming on a runner into a slit beneath the surface of the black plastic. It will root just fine, and form a vigorous new plant at some distance from the mother plant, that will fruit the following season. If you continue to do this, you can keep a healthy patch going from 3-5 years, renewing the plants every season.

Removing weeds from a small raised bed may be considered recreational weeding, but when the bed is more like 20x30 feet it is no longer fun. Around here, annual and perennial weeds are responsible for the end of more strawberry patches than any other factor.

I guess by professional mulch you mean something like bark chunks, but whatever the material slugs and pillbugs will take up residence in it, at least in Northern Virginia. And they will eat your berries.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Jellyman, Thanks for the suggestion. IÂll try that if I set up a new strawberry bed. I usually pull a few weeds with one hand while I search and eat strawberries with the other, (okay, I eat more than I weed), so itÂs never been a difficult chore. The patch has produced almost continuously since early last spring, until the heat wave. LGM makes a planting mix and mulch that is fairly fine, breaks down over a year or two. The raised bed is mostly potting soil, so the few weeds come out easily.
I donÂt know why there arenÂt more slug and bug problems. Perhaps the bird feeder attracts the birds; the birds eat the slugs and bugs. The large grasshoppers seem to prefer the bugs to the strawberries as well. The red strawberries are hidden under the large leaves.
The white alpine strawberries are the hardest hit by the birds, but itÂs not that bad. The only way I know the birds have been eating them is that most of the strawberry plants sprouting wild around the yard are the white alpine variety.