I would like to plant some , maybe 4 rows 50 ft each. Not really to sell but a nice patch on our farm for family and friends.

School me on strawberries. I have no experience with them. We have a sizable garden, asparagus tomato’s peppers squash etc but never messed with berries. What variety do you like? Should I do perennial or annual? Sandy loam soils , well drained and I have access to water if irrigation is necessary.

Thanks in advance!

Strawberries are prone to wilts, mildew and disease. Almost all commercial ones are done on an annual hill system with plastic mulch and drip irrigation. Planted in fall or late winter and ripped out after harvest.

But for the home garden the matted row system is just fine and will get you several years before they need renovation or replacement.

Matted row is planting in a row leaving room for runners to fill in. You guide the runners for spacing. Renovation entails cutting off the tops post harvest and if crowded removing strips of plants on each side of the row to give room to fill again.

As to type there are three; June bearing, everbearing and day neutral.

June bearing, or more properly spring bearing, are determinate bearing one crop early in the year.
Everbearing are indeterminate bearing a steady crop as long as temps stay below 75° (don't quote me on the exact number).
Day neutral are similar to everbearing but I don't understand the difference.

But all are sensitive to heat effecting bearing which is why June bearing is the choice for the south. But in these there are early to late varieties so planting two or three different ones can prolong the harvest.

Plan to restart new beds every few years in clean soil with new clean plants.

BTW strawberries are ripe here now.

Sandy loam should be ideal. They will need mulched, pine straw is about perfect, and drip is better than overhead.

Good advice above. My rows died out last winter even with good cover. Starting over. You will have less wilt, mildew, mold etc. on higher, lighter and slightly acidic soil if you have that. They need a lot of water when they are producing berries. Don't let them set berries the planting year. I am assuming, maybe incorrectly you are planting June bearing plants. I cover with wheat straw. I had a patch at our son's place and they have heavier clay which really grew huge plants with tons of berries but always wet and damp and mold was a huge problem. If you have good yields 4 50 foot rows wil give you a lot of berries. I hope you have a big family and lots of friends! Good problem to have.
I also tried not to pick them when the leaves were wet or damp if I could. Using straw you will get mice and shrews which will mean you have lots of berries that get chewed on. Keeping it drier will also keep the slug numbers down. With quite a few mice it is not uncommon to have a few pine or bull snakes in your patch hoping for some protein. Also at the end of the year I run over mine with my lawn mower an knock the old growth down to the crowns..

Bryce

100' X 25' patch ...cut X's in plastic and planted crowns with a small handful of fish fertilizer and rock phosphate set off to the side.



About 5 weeks later



Seascape variety of day neutrals. Planted in early May started bearing the end of July and by the 1st of October had produced 175 flats (about 1500 lbs)

I can get you crowns from this patch if you need any. I'm cleaning up the runners that rooted into the sawdust right now.

Beaver peeler do you have a bcs or Grillo?

^^I assume you mean a hand tiller? I have a troybilt but this berry patch never saw its use.

BCS and Grillo are not just tillers but more properly two wheeled tractors. They are Italian makes that originated to work small parcels in mountain terrain where large tractors won't go. They work around a pto type attachment system that can take not just tillers but mowers of all types, hay balers, run chipper/shredders, generators, etc. Basically most anything you can on a larger tractor on a smaller scale.

https://www.earthtools.com/

I was wondering how you buried your landscape fabric

The landscape cloth was stapled down over the berms and then sawdust was shoveled into the aisles for pickers to be on. The whole 100X25 parcel had a lot of perennial weed issues and the covering of ground cloth pretty much took care of that issue.

Thanks for the advice guys! So maybe I’ll downsize and start with 2 or 3 short rows. Is seascape a good all purpose variety? Should I get plants or crowns to get them established?

Bareroot crowns is the best and cheapest way to go. "Seascape" is my go to variety for the last 25 years. It is a day-neutral, so flowers and fruits continually all summer. Actually there are some ebbs and flows in production but there are always some ripe fruit. Size is good and the flavor and sweetness is outstanding. Red through the middle not white interior like some.

If it were me I'd contact some local growers and see what they plant In your area.

Do you replant the seascape every year in the same spots? How long have you used the same plot for strawberries?

I rotate the day-neutrals out fairly quickly. Like Warrior says they are prone to some of the wilts that build up in strawberry ground. If I plant this year i get a crop starting in mid summer until frost and the following spring I get a nice crop. By the end of the second season I take them out. So I'm always planting a new field every year.

Beav's advice to see what others are planting near you is solid advice too. I do know that Seascapes do well in a lot of places. I have friend that grows them every year in Wisconsin and wows the locals because they're not used to having local strawberries in August. Over the years I have gotten a few on here growing them in different locales.

beaverpeeler, fill me in on the day neutral vs everbearing please.

Down here the heat shuts down everbearers about the same time the june bearers are done.

I would love to be able to have strawberries over the summer.

The older version of strawberries that produce supposedly all summer long were called everbearers. These actually tended to be more of spring crop and a fall crop, not much in between. As I understand it about 30-35 years ago they isolated a gene in rocky mountain wild strawberries that has been called a "day-neutral" gene. Strawberries in the high rockies had to produce bloom during the longest days of the year whereas normally shorter days instigate blooming in strawberries. Berry breeders took this innovation and ran with it so now we have strawberry varieties that can produce virtually non-stop for 6 months to a year or more if the climate allows.

In my father's day we used to have what was called the 5 ton club for strawberry growers (June bearers). WIth the newer day-neutrals growers scoff at those production records 20-25 T/acre being the norm.

We start picking around the 10th of June and are done by the 1st week In July. But we will irrigate (over Head) to keep the berries cooled down during any hot spells.
We also Irrigate to frost protect.

Beaver peeler how are your yields the second year compared to the first?

Also when do you get rooted runners in the sawdust, about how many do you get and do you plant those in the fall for the following years crop? Do you have to irrigate the sawdust to get the runners to root.

My water table is pretty high like 2’ down with jars packed clay, I’m digging an irrigation pond this summer and am planning on doing strawberries and rotating them with garlic.