Strawberries, yields, and post harvest care

When June Bearing Strawberries are finished for the season, the crop is suppose to be renovated.  I'm getting ready to renovate again this year.  Does anyone else do this?  I don't recall Mel mentioning it in the book, rather, one method he described is to replace all the plants after a couple of years.

Also, this article says up to a quart of strawberries can be harvested from one plant.  Really? I don't get that kind of yield!  Do you?  That line of thinking should've produced 14-16 gallons from my box.  The entire box produced just over 2-1/4 gallons or over 8 quarts.

My plants were all different ages though, which affects the outcome as I understand things.  Also, they were hastily transplanted together this Spring from different areas into one box after I lost my table top berries over winter.  Anyway, I sure appreciated and enjoyed the harvest. 
  
Here is more on renovating :
   
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1424.html

I don't renovate. My strawberries are technically overcrowded, but they are happy and healthy. 

I don't think a quart a plant is reasonable, even if you were to pinch off all the daughters.  My strawberries are very, very low maintenance, close to zero, are great producers, but I have given them several boxes.

I'll post photos later.

Well thanks Martha, and if you get a chance to post I'd love to see pics, TIA.

My strawberry patch is in its third year.  I planted 4 plants per square foot, and I also renovate by cutting down most of the foliage after harvest, and I try to remove the runners all summer.  My yields have averaged one pound per square foot.  That's 1/4 pound per plant.

The good…



I've shown (shown off?) this photo before. This is one day's harvest from last year. I've had similar yields this year, but again, I have a lot of space given over to strawberries.  

Now here's the bad…or easy, depending on how you look at it!…..




There is no ugly - they're strawberries!

I have 12 4X4's planted in strawberries, and this year, in 16 days, I've harvested 13 1/2 gallons.

Holy cow that is a heck of a lot of square footage devoted to one crop! But it's hard to imagine getting tired of home-grown strawberries. What do you do with all those strawberries?

martha wrote:I have 12 4X4's planted in strawberries, and this year, in 16 days, I've harvested 13 1/2 gallons.

All I can say is wow!

Thanks Martha and Mikesgardn,  its very interesting to see what kind of harvest others are getting.  In a way its a shame the plants use the space for 11 months before producing anything.  Wouldn't it be exciting if geneticists did something helpful like develop plants that return a longer harvest period? Nice dream.  Anyway  I'll be renovating this morning and add compost and worm castings to help them recover from the shock. Then add a little more in late August as kind of a last meal before the long winters nap.

My garden is at our restaurant, so strawberry shortcake, strawberry ice cream, strawberry "cappuccino" - strawberry soup topped with basil foam, strawberry, arugula and goat cheese salad….

Strawberry soup??? Wow, never heard of that. Is it served cold like gazpacho?

Yes. Mmmmmmmm…..!

Okay, so question - I purchased some late slips from a big-box center and got them planted.  They are covered w/ pine straw.  But I'm seeing no growth yet.

Should I uncover them until they start putting out leaves, etc.?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks.

Yes uncover them and keep them watered while they put down roots.

Camp, how are your strawberries doing?

martha wrote:Camp, how are your strawberries doing?

I lost most of them to the recent harsh winter. I'm trying to propagate what's left. I'm envious of your patch! On the other hand the raspberries are doing great!

Thanks, Camp!  Will do.

LM, this year (well at least last fall)  instead of renovating, I dumped a lot of wood chips on all my strawberry beds. I had read where doing this does the renovation for you.  The wood chips help to sort the healthy new ones from the older ones and only the healthy ones come up
I have to say I have been extremely impressed with the size of the strawberries and the overall healthy appearance to the plants. Mine are intermingled JUNE and ever bearing, and they seem to just keep coming.

LM...
A small area of my strawbs were looking poorly, making nice berries, but the plants looked poor, red leaves, small, not healthy..This area got very few chips..
So I have put handfuls of compost between those berries.  I will try to post a picture of some of them,
 I have to admit I was a bit nervous just covering them with all them chips, and in the spring in some areas I removed some.... afraid that the strawberries would not come through.
But now I am more confident

It's been reasonably hot and dry here ..unusually no rain for over four weeks at 14 oC plus some days into the mid 20 o C's .


I've been so busy & getting very tired in muscles , joints and brain with this last stage of the landscaping I didn't water them as much as I should .....consequentially  it looks like they have self terminated ... I've now got a sprinkler arm set up over them but it looks like my strawberry season is over for 2014.
Come autumn I'll be moving them into one of the new MM filled high raised beds , as they have been nearly three years in the current position and strawberry root saw fly has started to infect the immediate ground around them .

 We did have several decent strawberry & ice cream or cream desserts off them.

 Wimbledon tennis fortnight has recently commenced  .. usually strawberries are only just coming into season .. ..Evidently at Wimbledon you'd be looking at four strawberries ,. some cream and a glass of reasonable wine for around £ 50  ( $ 75 USD. )

I can't abide tennis so I must have saved a fortune .   .

plantoid wrote: We did have several decent strawberry & ice cream or cream desserts off them.

 Wimbledon tennis fortnight has recently commenced  .. usually strawberries are only just coming into season .. ..Evidently at Wimbledon you'd be looking at four strawberries ,. some cream and a glass of reasonable wine for around £ 50  ( $ 75 USD. )

I can't abide tennis so I must have saved a fortune .   .

Yum on the strawberry desserts!  $75 for 4 strawberries and wine?  They must be Royal strawberries!

In the process of renovating the strawberry bed and looking at all the empty space. Prime real estate I'm thinking. Has anyone tried planting between the strawberry plants this time of year. I was thinking about dropping in a few bush bean seeds. They are a good companion to strawberries. And you can never have enough green beans! Any thoughts?

Bush bean would crowd out all the sun and kill the strawberry lants.

Ok no beans. Good to know! Thanks Camprn.  Any  recommendations or must I just leave it empty?