No. You just bought the wrong kind of plants. Strawberries come in two main forms, June bearing and day neutral. For an extended season, consider replanting with day neutral or everbearing varieties. If you want large berries, also consider that when you buy them. As a newbie, or even an experienced gardener, always do your research before buying as there is a lot of variation out there.

Simplest explination:

There are 2 types of strawberried, Junebearing, and everbearing. You have junebearing (one big crop, in you guessed it, June), and Im assuming you want everbearing (bears a few crops).

I wouldnt rip out the Junebearers, just plant some Ever bearing types, so you get a massive crop in june, and supplimental crops from the everbearing type. Look up particular ones, according to your area.

Dang I didn't think there was much I could do. I don't want to replant so I guess they will just be pretty leaves till next spring... Thanks for your reply :)

Thanks Canadianplant! I didnt think about that!!

Chryssyeldridge,

You will get a much better crop next spring with proper care. The berry size and numbers should increase significantly. I usually get a three to four week harvest window out of my June bearers. As stated above, I would add some everbearing variety in the mix to extend your season, though the berries tend to be smaller. But it's the flavor that's important in my opinion. You could also put in early, mid, and late season varieties of June bearers to get a longer harvest window.

If you let the runners grow, you'll get more strawberry plants.

Strawberries are heavy feeders, they need plenty of balanced fertilizer, not too heavy on the N. Start feeding them now, you'll get more, bigger berries next spring.

I have a 10-10-10 fertilizer can that be used on strawberries??

On their site they list all of their varieties with the portion of the season in which they bear.

You might want to order a set of late bearing if you have early (etc.) in addition to planting some everbearing.

I have 4 different varieties growing here (my fruit horror show this year being a long and different story) so your choices and 'season' can be expanded and extended.

I have had very good experiences ordering from Nourse Farms.

Andrew

Lol, Andy Howard the deer and bunnies out in Princeton? Still eating all of your goodies? Did your strawberry towers recover from the timer failure? I'm in Howell, and a small family of ground hogs have been causing me some problems as of late. I may try to catch and release them this weekend.

Chrssyeldridge, I think the 10-10-10 would do well, and if you've already got it, why waste it. It's probably not the best ratio, but it is balanced, and there is no way to tell what would be ideal without doing a soil test first.

Howard equals "how are"... Silly iPad lol...

OP...Your bummed because you only got 2 weeks of strawberries but yet have a ton of nice healthy plants with runners??? Whats to be bummed about? Serious I bought strawberry plants a couple months ago that I planted in pots and wasted a ton of planting material and had to throw everything out because the plants were infected with V wilt. And your bummed? Next year your going to be knee deep in the strawberries!

howelbama,

This year has been a disaster. 90% of the strawberries are dead (ie 9 out of every 10 holes). Unfortunately it is only the top few rows of holes with live strawberries which means that the runners can't be spread across the majority/some of the empty holes to 'restock' the tower.

I'll have to figure out an easy way to empty the 1-1-1 mix from the tower and restock in the Spring.

I've covered the raised beds of strawberries with a PVC frame and shade cloth - the plants seem to have recovered from the bunny damage and next year should be great (it's always 'next year').

The deer aflicted cherry is at least alive.

The blueberries are ripening which means the chipmunks should be making a nuisance of themselves soon and getting me ever closer to killing them (much against my wife's direct warnings to do no such thing).

The raspberries are coming on strong and the blackberries are growing like mad.

The veggie garden is a different story - late to plant, slow to grow, weeds trying to take over the asparagus bed. There's always next year (:.

Andrew

I have several varieties as well. We had a warm spring, and are already harvesting the early varieties. We normally don't start harvesting until the end of June so they are more then two weeks ahead this year. Main pests we are dealing with are chipmunks, rose chafers and birds. They all seem to take a single bite only from each fruit which drives me nuts. My wife doesn't seem to mind cutting the bite out of the berries and then eating them. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that. Luckily, we have replanted runners all over the property, so there really is plenty for all.

Capo, the one bite may actually be slugs or snails. Usually when the birds get mine, they do a good number on the berry, leaving little remaining.