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Strawberry beds
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Posted by hamiltongardener (My Page) on Mon, Apr 2, 07 at 21:22
| No, I am not about to ask for a recipe for supper tonight, rather for a recipe for my soil.
I've had success with my raised beds so far. I laid down newspaper over the grass, added peat moss, topsoil and composted animal manure on top, some blood and bone meal. Additions of compost to top up the beds in spring. It seems to work.
I am going to create another bed for strawberries and need some advise. Because the strawberries will be in this bed for several years, I would like to get the soil right the first time as it is hard to amend it with the plants in the ground already.
Starting with the soil recipe above, are there any suggestions you can give me to help my strawberries? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Strawberry beds
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I can't really suggest any lasagna recipes for your zone since I live at least 1500 miles south of you, but the strawberry plants I put in a bed in January are loaded with blossoms and small fruit right now. My first lasagna bed and first time growing strawberries...
In November I broke down some old cardboard boxes, laid them out, and soaked them well. Next came a little compost from an old pile. Then, in no particular order: leaves, coffee grounds(lots and lots,) grass clippings, a bunch of chopped up pumpkins, aged chicken manure, fresh horse manure, rotting straw, hay, fruit and vegetable pulp, and more leaves.
Beds started out 18 - 24 inches tall, settling to about 12 inches this spring. Thanks to all the suggestions on this forum, I was able to make my beds without spending a dime. Also, got a great deal on plants at a nursey that was closing down. oops, still haven't put those bargain banana trees in the ground....
good gardening to you! |
RE: Strawberry beds
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| I can't help on your bed creation, but just wanted to offer to help with variety selection if you have any questions about that. |
RE: Strawberry beds
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| Fruitgirl, I was going to see if I could find Tristar or Tribute around here. Day-neutral, correct? I don't want to do any preserving, so I figured that would be best. Any suggestions? |
RE: Melonhedd
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| Melonhedd, I have some unfinished compost, mostly kitchen scraps. I was going to lay that down underneath the layers to finish composting in the ground. There isn't much, but better than nothing I guess. |
RE: Strawberry beds
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| Yup, Tribute and Tristar are both day neutral types. Tristar is usually regarded as having better flavor, but Tribute is larger. I'd go for the flavor, honestly. You also might want to see if you can find Quinalt, which has good flavor. My best advice is to run far, far away from all varieties developed in California. Yeah, they're big and pretty, but they have no flavor! Where are you exactly? If you're in an area that gets fairly warm, the day neutral types may have a gap in production. Most day neutrals will stop producing once the temps get kind of high, but then start producing again once it cools off in fall. But if you're mostly looking to graze straight from the patch and mix up some strawberry shortcake every now and then, you'll probably be much happier with day neutrals. |
RE: Strawberry beds
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| I'm in the Hamilton-Niagara area. Should I factor in humidity when thinking about temperature? It's not uncommon in summer for temps to be low 30's (85-90 F) but the humidex makes it feel like 40's (105-110 F) Is the humidity good or bad for them? We would be eating them fresh from the patch, not likely to cook with them. Just for snacking on, but I do have a kiddo that 30 or so strawberies a "snack". I'm thinking 25 plants in a 5X5 raised bed. I'll be planting next week as soon as the bad weather passes. That means I'll be spending the week searching for Tristar plants, or Tribute if I can't find them. |
RE: Strawberry beds
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| The humidity won't have any affect on when/if they stop or slow down flowering. However, I used to live in the Lansing, MI area, and day neutrals will gap. The humidity will, however, cause more problems with fungal diseases, especially those like Botrytis (grey mold) that infect the fruit. Make sure you have good drainage in the beds to help with the fruit rots. |
RE: Strawberry beds
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| Update: I finished the beds with:
layer of newspaper
layer of unfinished compost
thin layer of peat moss
layer of sheep manure
layer of topsoil
layer of finished compost
layer of peat moss
layer of topsoil
layer of finished compost I scattered the odd handful of bonemeal and bloodmeal throughout as I was building the bed. Today, I planted my strawberries. I couldn't get my hands on Tristar, but I did get Fort Laramie. I ended up with 30 plants. I found it very hard to make sure that the crowns were at the right level, especially after I finished planting and watered the bed. Suddenly, the soil levelled out and it seemed that some were planted too low or too high. I tried to fix them as best I could but I didn't want to keep disturbing the plants. I hope they aren't too fragile. I'm crossing my fingers that the plants are able to establish themselves. |
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