dejavu
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Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2014 1:29 am

Strawberries? Which ones?

I have about 130 square feet of raised garden beds (about 12" high). I originally built them as 6" high Mittleider beds (sand and sawdust mix), but I got tired of that strategy. So I decided to double them up to 12" high and fill the top half with bags of Compost and Cow Manure mix from Lowes.

I was told that if I plant strawberries in the fall (September here in Kansas, hardiness zone 6a), that will give them a couple months of root development before they go dormant. This would allow them to produce good fruit the following year.
My first question ... Is that right? Or did I clear the bed out for nothing? lol

My second question would be ... Which variety of strawberry should I plant? I'm planning on following the Square Foot Gardening plan with the bed this year, and they recommend four strawberry plants per square foot. At first that seemed rather crowded, but after growing some strawberries about 6" apart in another garden, I can see how it'll work.

The problem I'm running into .. no pun intended .. is the strawberry runners. The variety I bought from Lowe's last year (already about 4" high at the time) were Ozark Beauty's and they seem to produce about 14 runners per strawberry. My scissors are starting to go dull just from clipping off the runners (okay, maybe a little exaggeration).

I've been trying to find some runnerless varieties, but I'm not having any luck (unless I want to buy seeds and propagate them myself). So I've been considering another strategy .. plant 2 strawberries per square foot instead of 4, then just allow them to run free until they find a balance (hopefully without strangling each other out).

So, can any of you direct me towards a low-runner (or runnerless) variety that will produce large to very large strawberries ... and most importantly .. that are actually available for purchase right now so I can plant them next week-ish? I've tried searching, Google has been a disappointment. I'm hoping you good folks are up to the challenge.

Thanks in advance,
Ed

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applestar
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Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Hmmm, I've always followed the plat 1 ft apart rule. They fill in fast.
Besides, the plants I've bought generally had 6-8" roots that when spread to plenty occupied their allotted space. I can't imagine planting them 6" apart.

I've always bought bareroot plants that are shipped as soon as can be planted in spring for your area. One year, they arrived first week of March, and even though they were correct that the ground was thawed and workable, *I* was too cold to go out and plant them. Eventually they went in over a two week period.

Last time, I ordered from Starks Bros. No wait that was before -- the last time I bought strawberries was when I bought Seascape from Pinetree Gardens.

I prefer varieties that produce runners because the plants need to be replaced every so often. Only runner less varieties I know of are Alpines which produce tiny flavor packed fruits.

imafan26
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Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Seascape would probably be good since they don't make a lot of runners. I prefer Albion to seascape, the berries are bigger and sweeter for me, but they do produce a lot of runners. Like Apple, that doesn't bother me because strawberries are so prone to fungal issues that I need the runners replace the plants I have to take out.

Runners do need to be cut off if you want more berries. It also helps to give them less nitrogen so they don't get so much vegetative growth.



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