2012 pictures of Birth of new strawberry bed through 1st renovation

Thought it would be kind of neat to document Mel's Mix and my first strawberry bed attempt:

April 10, 2012 tabletop of brand new strawberry starts:
A humble beginning:



April 27, just 17 days later:



May 1, few more days later and wow already getting flowers :



July 18, ate some intense tasting berries! But found out that first year starts should have their flowers cut off to encourage root development and produce a large crop the following year. While waiting to get the nerve to cut, I counted a couple hundred little green berries that were indeed cut off.
This method is suppose to nearly guarantee a great crop next Spring.
This picture then shows how vigorous the plants became, kept cutting runners and still ended up with hundreds of runners everywhere. The mother plants had leaves and stems a good 8 or so inches tall. It was a jungle in there. Not good. Aphids took hold, wonder if they loved all the moisture and darkness. Fortunately organic homemade spray seemed to take care of it.


August 28, If you've never seen a renovation, take a deep breath. Although this looks incredibly drastic, all the closed up crowns are now open, and the stems are 99% free of aphids. The instructions I've read said to cut about an inch above the crowns. I added homemade sifted compost with added worm castings around each plant. Put a burlap cover over the cage for shade to help minimize shock. Don't know if that was right to do but thought it wouldn't hurt. I am certainly disturbed over the lack of leaves.....Renovation should have been completed a few weeks ago. But yes, I'm late and counting on the souped-up compost to save the day.........yet, I've got this terrible feeling there should be more leaves left on the plants, Yes? No? Anyone? (there are very tiny leaf sprouts on the stems)

For now the last picture is current and I want to add more as things develop. I don't know if I've done everything right or not, but I thought this experience was very interesting so far.

I hate to see what mine looks like when I get back home. Here is the picture taken the day before I left.



and runners were coming out all over the edges of the tabletop. Who knows what was in the middle. Cut what I had time for back. Hope I'll have time to trim up my bed and get the needed regrowth before mid Nov frost.

BTW, check that first picture. Your Today's plants don't look much different/worse than the original transplants.

Kay

Yours look very healthy and thick.
My frost could be mid October, sooner or later, keep my fingers crossed for both of us that our plants will have enough time and warmth to fully recover.

We're supposed to trim them??? More please?

CC

The runners should be cut back during your first season of strawberry plants. They take energy away from the mother plant while it is getting established. I let some of my runners go to long without cutting them back and they were trying to plant themselves. So, I cut them off and did the transplant. I know there is a great thread on here about strawberries. Just type in "strawberries" in the search area and it will get you there. Hope this helps!

Renee

LLM thank you for sharing the journey of your strawberries!!....cant wait to see how they do next year

hugs
rose

never really tried strawberries, but we have lots of open squares. So, you plant them and leave them year after year? They grow strawberries in our area, acres of them. they don't leave them tho. They just got done with cabbage, and are now planting the strawberry plants, in other words, they don't leave them there. Are there different types of plants? These local strawberries are the BEST I've ever eaten. HUGE and super sweet. Might have to ask the farmer what the variety is. People drive for miles to come and get them

I'm too new at growing these to give advice to you in a completely different zone. I'm in zone 6. A nice concise overview would be a fact sheet from your extension service. It's located at a state agricultural college, should be pretty easy to google and find out.

One method in a sf garden here in zone 6, the plants can go for a couple years and replace all the plants every few years when they tire out.

Or like other people do, you can let the runners grow a bit and replant those, timing it so when the originals tire out, the new ones are ready to produce. You can try the white search box above to find other threads on strawberries. I love the concept of having them right there at my doorstep without traveling to a U-Pick farm all the while wondering how many sprays of who-knows-what was applied.

FamilyGardening wrote:LLM thank you for sharing the journey of your strawberries!!....cant wait to see how they do next year

hugs
rose

Back at You Rose I am so happy to have my private backyard stash and equally grateful for the help I've received from you and others.

llama momma wrote: I'm too new at growing these to give advice to you in a completely different zone. I'm in zone 6. A nice concise overview would be a fact sheet from your extension service. It's located at a state agricultural college, should be pretty easy to google and find out.

One method in a sf garden here in zone 6, the plants can go for a couple years and replace all the plants every few years when they tire out.

Or like other people do, you can let the runners grow a bit and replant those, timing it so when the originals tire out, the new ones are ready to produce. You can try the white search box above to find other threads on strawberries. I love the concept of having them right there at my doorstep without traveling to a U-Pick farm all the while wondering how many sprays of who-knows-what was applied.

Amen on the sprays. I guess strawberries are one of the WORST for being sprayed and "holding" the sprays on the fruit. Yeck!!

When I renovated the strawberries there is a picture if you scroll backwards a little bit. Here is a current photo how fast they grew back in just 2 weeks. I am hoping the roots took off as well so the plants can survive their first winter in this table top.

llama momma wrote: When I renovated the strawberries there is a picture if you scroll backwards a little bit. Here is a current photo how fast they grew back in just 2 weeks. I am hoping the roots took off as well so the plants can survive their first winter in this table top.

They survived their Buzz Cut just fine! YAY!

GG

southern gardener wrote:
Amen on the sprays. I guess strawberries are one of the WORST for being sprayed and "holding" the sprays on the fruit. Yeck!!

When it comes to the worst amount of pesticides used I understand strawberries are included in that Dirty Dozen list.
Here is an article on commercial spraying of strawberries and it's pretty awful IMHO. If everything it claims is true, store bought strawberries are really bad. If you have thought of growing your own this might be the article that inspires one to build that new box or in ground strawberry patch. Or with a tabletop box, standing there you can easily pluck out disease causing weeds and spot any problems early on.
http://jayewisdom.hubpages.com/hub/Want-pesticides-with-that

OH yeah ick! Strawberries are the worst for poisons! If you watch the last minute or 2 of the movie 'The Future of Food', it really shows it in detail. The sprayer is protected from head to toe while dousing the plants with such a heavy spray that it flows off the plants. So gross. Then the next shot is of a little boy taking a big bite out of a gorgeous huge strawberry.


CC

So here is a dreary Feb. 22nd in central Ohio. The ice storm from last night just melted. Nice to see the bed is filled with green leaves underneath pine straw. Instead of the plants reaching 6-8 inches tall like in the summer, here is one of the plants hugging the soil so close, and maybe an inch tall at best. Tough little plants.

llama momma wrote:So here is a dreary Feb. 22nd in central Ohio. The ice storm from last night just melted. Nice to see the bed is filled with green leaves underneath pine straw. Instead of the plants reaching 6-8 inches tall like in the summer, here is one of the plants hugging the soil so close, and maybe an inch tall at best. Tough little plants.

When did you come to my house to take a pic of my strawberry bed???...LOL Mine looks just like yours with the pine needles. We had some sleet earlier today so things are just a bit slick here and there.

Pretty cool to have another Ohioan on here. I am one at heart since I lived east of Cleveland all my life until I joined the US Navy. All of my family still lives there.
Renee

Well....I snuck over there early this morning
After many years I still consider myself a NY'er first. Talk about strong roots. 33 yrs ago became a Ohioan originally from Long Island. I got through the culture shock of no more ocean, people talking with a mild twang, square pizza and such. But it was so easy to embrace the real estate prices here, plus no "real" traffic jams, and wonderful dark skies for star gazing and meteor showers. I go back sometimes but I don't miss it. Too crowded and way overpriced.

Really? Your supposed to do all that? I never do. I will as the year goes by let the kids root and will once in a while take out a momma..other than that..nope. I clear off debris in the spring, cover with tulle. And eat strawberries lol..

you are killing me CL!
Lol - this is what I get for reading
and trying to go by the book.
:read the rules
so if all the information works out I expect quite a load from the first harvest this June. And extras to freeze and dehydrate too.

Here's a question for you all, how long does it take for strawberry root stock to take off and start greening up?

A few weeks in my area.

Just go to page one of this thread and check out the dates on the photos. The baby starts greened up very fast, thanks to Mel's Mix.

LL, yours had leaves on them. Mine didn't come that way, just roots. That's why I was asking.

I had to go back and look at my notes.
I received the roots March 24th almost 2-1/2 weeks before that first picture was taken. They were sad looking and I put them in the cool garage heeled in Mel's mix. Three days later they greened up and were looking lively, that's all I have in my notes about that. Hope this helps!