I have a few strawberry relayed questions. First, on my old property, I grew strawberries in my back yard along with many other types of berries and fruit. The problem I had was clay soil that was left about 1-2 years after the original organic soil that they had been planted in had decomposed and disappeared. This soil dried out very fast, and even though the summer bearing variety I grew was very thick due to lots of runners producing new plants every year, the whole bed still dried out quickly, and after about 4-5 years, almost all the strawberry plants were gone.

I moved from there, but I had dug up and transplanted some of those strawberry plants on the left side bed at my Mothers house. The soil there is mostly clayey, but it doesnt get as much sunlight, and those plants come back thick every year, and they attempt to spread a lot,

After they fruited in early June this year, it seems much of their foliage has died back, so when I looked at them last week, there were open areas filled with brown strawberry leaves. We were getting a decent amount of rain prior to about 3 weeks ago, then less rain, but as of last week the plants look bad, is that normal for some dieback after fruiting?

Next, I hear people talking about birds being a problem for strawberries, but our problem is bugs! It was the same when I was growing them at my old house too. They would start producing berries, but we always knew we had about 4-7 days of harvesting before the slugs and ants and other bugs would begin ruining almost all of the berries! How to prevent bugs from destroying the crop?

Lastly, Flavor: I once split 2 separate raspberry plants out of a pot I had bought. It was supposed to be one golden orange raspberry variety, I believe the variety was 'Anne', but I may be wrong. It wasnt 'Fall Gold' though. After separating the 2 plants, I planted one in my yard in organic soil after removing the native clay from the hole I dug. The 2nd plant of the same variety was planted at a client's home, but when I brought it there, I realized I had no proper soil, so I was forced to plant it in this horrible looking rocky clay. Their home is on a hill near an old quarry, so its red-orange clay with occasional rocks.

Now, once both of those raspberry plants begin fruiting the next year, I was able to sample each, and the orangey raspberries that came off the plant in my yard, grown in good soil, were terrible! Whereas the orangey berries grown in terrible soil were absolutely the most wonderful tasting berries I have ever tasted! These tested like a cross between banana, orange and red raspberry in flavor. The only difference was location and soil, but the difference in flavor was night and day!

I was wondering of strawberries are similar, in that maybe their flavor could be improved through a change in soil?