I’ve got around 30 strawberry plants which I grew last year. I bought them as plugs around a year ago and have since been growing them in pots. However, I am hoping to plant them all out into a bed today…
I’ve been reading up about spacing. Most sites recommend around 30 - 45 cm (12 - 18 inches) between plants, and anything from 60 - 120 cm (2 - 4 foot) between rows.
My question is whether the row spacing is essential? I’d prefer not to grow in rows and just have the bed filled with the plants, with the odd “stepping stone” to reach the ones at the back. Are the row spacing recommendations there for ease of cultivation and care, or for the health of the plants? Is it possible to just fill the bed with plants all 30 - 45 cm apart and not worry at all about rows?
Any advice most appreciated. And I hope everyone is enjoying the sun
Row are not essential. They do make things like harvesting, managing, and moving around your patch easier. They’re necessary for large scale farming of strawberries, but not essential for our backyard patches. I’ve got 5 strawberry beds, all in square or rectangular patches. 5x5 or 4x8 in size and I planted about one per square foot (30cm square) which is a little tight.
Depending upon the variety you have the patch can expand very quickly. I have Mara de Bois, Earlyglow, Sparkle, Honeoye, and Seascape.
Seascape runners almost not at all. Mara de Bois and Honeoye runners some but are manageable. Earliglow runners profusely, and Sparkle seems to be trying to overrun the earth.
More space between the plants will give you more leeway in dealing with the runners, it will also give more airflow and keep the berries and plants dryer and thus a little less prone to rot and disease. That said, I haven’t found the effect to be huge. Others my beg to differ.
On the other hand a thick mat of plants does some work in hiding the berries from birds and I lose less berries to birds when I let them grow thick.
The strawberries will overgrow the stepping stones. Squatting on stones while picking and controlling a container can be awkward. I would use clusters of stones for a steady perch and container space.
In my experience with strawberries I tried them in a bed first, but they are hard to pick and I had alot of problems with rot. Since then I’ve only grown them in rows and the ability of the air to circulate has eliminated the rot problem, and I do space them about 1 foot. This has worked well for me
I like the single row modified hill system myself. Well for as long as I can maintain it. Easy to lose control of the patch. This system allows two runners per plant, and the rest are removed. Once space is filled I use the hill system, allowing no runners. Once the plants get old, I remove many and keep a few younger ones and do it all over. This year is a do it all over. I killed over 100 strawberry plants last year, Strawberries gone wild, strawberries at spring break! I had to redo everything to gain control again.
I too let a strawberry patch get out of control. Between rot and snails, I didn’t get a lot of fruit. If I were to do it all over again, I’d use the hill/row method and do a better job of controlling how they spread. I’ve been to U-Pick fields where it was very easy to move down the row as they trained the runners and cut any going the wrong way.
Last year I cut out several strawberry plants due to leaf spot. Last week I ripped out the remaining plants as the leaf spot reappeared. I covered the soil in cardboard, and then a combo of manure and garden soil. Next week I will plant about 10 Charlotte strawberries. My bed is 4’ x 6’. Any recommendations on the best approach to planting these? Yes, I am currently reading the article in the above post.