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Strawberry patch with weed suppressant maintenance

a1154a1154 Posts: 1,108
in Fruit & veg
I’m turning my attention to a good sized strawberry patch in the shared garden of a rental property, which nobody else goes near.
It has plants through holes in weed fabric, but was absolutely covered in weeds and runners, looked a total mess. However, the weeds have scraped off the fabric easily. I have tidied the plants up and all looks really good. 
I think through, that the plants have been in years and may not be productive. I’m not sure whether to leave it be for this year or take the established plants out and replace them with some of the new babies on the runners. Is it too late to do this? 
I wouldn’t have thought this setup is meant to last years and years, but I don’t think I want to dismantle it. 
Any thoughts on getting a good crop and how to maintain the patch? 

Posts

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Strawbs stop being very productive after a few years, so it's always better to take runners off the old ones in summer, and grow those on to start replacing those original, worn out plants. If you do that each year, you'll end up with a section with one year old plants, a section with 2 yr old ones [the most productive] and the original ones which will be 3 yrs old and needing replaced the following year. You just keep repeating the cycle so that you never have old plants.  :)
    Plant up the runners you have and then try and do that sort of method. No point trying to cultivate old plants.  :)
    They do need a good amount of food and water, so it might be better to remove the weed fabric completely, and then add a layer of manure initially to beef up the soil. The problem with the fabric is, that although it helps keep weeds down, it's not so easy to add food.
    Depending on what room you have, you can always add something to aid weed prevention in between the rows. Organic matter is best though, and helps with the soil condition as well as adding some nutrients. I grow most of mine in pots, so they get fresh compost added and either some slow release food or tomato food. In the ground, they get the organic matter  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • a1154a1154 Posts: 1,108
    Ah…ok. Well I don’t want to remove the fabric.
    There are plenty of small plants which must be last years babies, I will take a third or half of the plants out, and put the newer ones in, and get more in the summer. I’ll feed as well and see what happens. 
  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    edited May 2022
    I would leave it this year, but take runners and plan to replace all the parent plants in the autumn when the runners are big enough for planting on.

    The easiest way if you want to keep them in the same spot would be to take up one side of the fabric and flip it, then you can add compost under it, put it back and plant the new strawberries back through the holes.
    However it is best to move the plants every 3-4 years, depending on the state of the fabric, the size of the holes and how much work you fancy moving the entire thing would be the best solution. The fabric I use has a 7 year guarantee so it can do 2 successions of strawberry plants.
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