Strawberry and Raspberry question

[Walthree]

I haven't gotten my garden patch ready yet but I look at it often. Looking and Planning. I see that the previous owner had strawberries. I think they may extend the whole length of the garden patch which is approx 33 ft long. I see some of the leaves on the left side kinda flatten still. I was wondering if I (don't know what the corrected term is) turn the soil to brake it up so I can start to put my seeds/plants in will I lose the already planted strawberries? Should I try to take out the plants that are in the grown to save them but I how do I “save: them. I don't want to kill them b/c I would love to have strawberries for the summer but I'm not sure if I should just skip that area and not tend to that area.

Also there are 3 raspberry plants as well. When we were cleaning up the garden area in August we may have cut the stems too short. I think they are approx 6 inches. Do you think they will come back?

Thanks.

[JONA878]

Hi Walthree.
Strawberries are at their best for about five years at most. Most folk would replace the plants after that sort of time with fresh young plants to get the best out of them. So if you don't know the age of these plants you are in a quandry.
So, it may pay you to dig some of the plants up and heal them in somewhere.
That means plant them in a large bunch somewhere out of the way so that the roots don't dry out while you prepare the ground for re-planting.
Just dig enough plants for say half the area you want for strawberries. Then you can plant the remaining area with fresh runners so that you can be sure of getting at least half a crop at worst.

As regards the raspberries ....cutting them back that far will not have hurt them.
Rasps produce new cane from their underground roots each year.
There are two sorts of Rasps.
One grows new cane each year and crops on that cane that same year.
These are the Primo-cane Rasps.
The others are the more usual types. These produce new cane each year which crop the following year.
Either way your plants will live..it's just a matter of waiting to see if they crop this year or next.
If the new cane does not crop this year then you have the type that crops on its two year old cane.....so don't go and cut this new cane back down in the autumn, or you'll be back to square one again.

Jona.

[Walthree]

Thank you. This was very helpful.