Growing Strawberries in Clay Soil

[Farseeker]

Good morning!

I've been busy working away at clearing my plots and getting them ready for spring. I have a whole lot of strawberries that I managed to pick up during a clearance sale that are needing planting.

My problem is I have clay soil. Since I have to bury my ollas for the strawberries anyway, I'm taking the opportunity to add a lot of stuff to the soil in the hopes of improving it.

Around each olla where the strawberries are going to be planted I'm adding in gypsum. There's also an area at the gardens where lawn clippings get dumped, and I'm digging out the broken down and decomposed stuff from the bottom, and adding that in too. Then I'm adding broken down horse manure. This is down to a depth of about 20-30cm.

Do you think this is enough for the strawberries to be ok in the ground? Or should I be resigning myself to using pots? I have nearly 80 of the suckers (sale means by more right?) that need somewhere to grow!

[imafan26]

I have clay and mine are in the ground, but I prefer them in pots. The birds, slugs, and snails love them too much so I need to be able to move them out of harm's way. In the ground they need to be covered in the light mulch in sumer to protect them from the sun and they like a lot of compost and regular fertilizer. In the cooler months they are fine in full sun.

[applestar]

I think they would do better in raised beds or mounded beds/rows above clay soil.

[jal_ut]

Here in the valley where I live the soils are all clay based. Some are heavier than others, but they all grow crops. The important thing with clay is: "Never Work It When Too Wet!" I suspect your strawberries would do better in the ground.