Harvester of sorrow wrote:18" sounds about right. The definitions of strawberry types seems to have changed over the years. It used to be 3 types, May-bearing,June-bearing,and ever-bearing. Mine are May-bearing and I could almost set my watch by them (May 8-10 through May 22-24). Raised rows is definately recommended.
I think strictly speaking there are just two main crop types of Straws,( ignoreing the wild and alpin vars) Summer fruiting and Everbearers.
However....main crop cqn crop from early spring through to late fall.
This is possable through the breeding of many vars that will be seasonal responsive. Some cropping in the spring and others who's cropping occurs at different times through the summer months.
Growers though over the years have developed many techniques to make the more popular vars crop virtualy when they want them to.
This is done by the use of cold storage...waiting bed production etc.
By these methods growers over here can crop the same var from march through to november. The march crop needing glass protection of course.
An apple a day.....keeps me in work.