I just made a strawberry bed this year. It's one of those 3 tiered things you've probably seen in the garden catalogs. So far so good. It couldn't hold 125 plants, though. I'm short and can reach to the top tier just fine.

Can you transplant your strawberries instead of running them over with a mower? Or is running over them supposed to help in some way.

I've never been able to mow them down. It just seems so harsh. But I "think" it's to get rid of all the foliage and then you replant the plants were you want them and they'll put out new runners.

Thoughts???

I think that Mulberryknob has renovated her strawberry beds several times. Hopefully she'll see this thread and tell you how she does it.

I don't have to renovate my strawberry beds. About every third or fourth year, exceptional drought renovates them for me by killing them all. Then, the following year or whenever rainfall returns consistently, I plant more.

Haha--this is the first I've heard of renovating strawberry beds--and I just thought you meant building new beds.

OkieDawn, that's what I'm experiencing now. The whole bed looks bedraggled. I hate the idea of planting over.

The first year you just water the plants and get a handful of berries. The second year is the bumper crop and the third year is a little less and then it looks like they are done☹️. Kinda like a Triannual-not a biennial.

Is that how one should think of growing strawberries??

No, I think that strawberries are perennials in many climates and should be the same here, but they really aren't. It is just that our hot dry summers are hard on them, and drought summers are exceptionally hard on them. I'm pretty sure Dorothy has had her strawberry beds forever and forever (or almost that long), so hopefully she'd see this thread when she is online and will tell you and the rest of us all her strawberry growing secrets.

Some people in very hot and humid areas grow strawberries more like annuals or biennials---planting them in mid-autumn for harvesting the following spring and summer, and then yanking out the plants after they are done producing that year and planting a new crop in mid-autumn again for a harvest the following spring or summer. I believe this is done, when it is done, more because of persistent disease issues than anything else.

Well, Dorothy, I guess my memories are old ones! We've both been on this forum for quite a few years now.

I've had pretty good luck with everbearers, but my climate is usually pretty different from yours so maybe that is why. I'm glad to hear that Loran has done well for you because I've seen it in stores for 2 or 3 years now but hadn't bought any since I didn't know anyone who'd grown them.

We're having a really good strawberry year this year, both from plants in the ground and in pots, so we've been pretty happy about that.

The reason you are "supposed to" mow/till down the middle of your bed is: to get ride of the older plants, and let the new ones take over. The older the plant gets, the less it produces.

I just dig some up every year, and toss them. That way, the bed doesn't get to crowded either. :)

Oh, should have said, I used to do this... now, here, I don't have any strawberries yet. But, there should be some by next year.

This year, it was hard to leave in May, as the strawberries were in full production mode. All my neighbors had permission to go over, and indulge. :)

Moni

I have been toying with the idea of a nice strawberry bed. I used to use them as ground cover in my beds, never got many berries that way because turtles beat me to most of them. I have seen people tear the beds up with tillers, it always looked so dramatic but I guess that's what you do. I thought the same plants produced forever and the runners just made more??? Guess I was wrong.

I have a few more questions...

can I dig up some of the newer plants and replant them?

Can I replant them in the same bed or do you need to rotate the plantings?

I really like the bed where they are now and would just like to add some compost and replant. Do bad things accumulate in the bed if I keep strawberries there?

I have a few good looking plants still around the edges and will see about ordering new plants for a fall planting.

Any thoughts??

You can move established plants, but they may not like it. It is easier and safer to pinch off runners and plant them somewhere else. Strawberry diseases tend to build up quickly in the soil, but I've grown strawberries in the same bed for 4 or 5 years with no big disease issues. Much probably depends on how well your soil drains and on how healthy the soil itself is. Since I haven't moved my plants in a while, all I do is mulch them with compost and then, when drought eventually gets the plants, I add a lot of new compost before I plant new plants.

I've been going to Minick's in Edmond and getting a 2 yard pickup load of their Dark Forest compost and mulching my beds with it. I think I'll do as you suggest and pinch off the runners, then till the bed, form the rows (leaving space to walk in amongst the beds to pick the berries), replant the runners and then mulch with the Dark Forest. I won't have enough runners to fill out the bed, so think I'll contact Stark Brothers to see if they ship strawberry plants in the fall.

I don't think Stark Bros ships many varieties of strawberries, if any, in the fall. If that is correct, there are other sources of strawberry varieties that grow well in the south, including Bob Wells Nursery in Lindale Texas. They usually ship in the fall and winter, often as early as September or October. They don't ship after June 1st.

Strawberries at Bob Wells Nursery