Strawberry Plants ........... No Strawberries?

[Grow 4 Food]

I have an issue. My Strawberry patch is going on 4 years old, and I will admit that I am not the best at weed control. BUT, I have several plants there but there is not any berries? I did see blooms but there are not any berries following? I know others in the area are producing right now so what is up with mine? There have not been any strawberry pies, the jam is running low, and the wine is gone !!! HELP!

 

[lesa]

Gee, it seems strange that you would have flowers and not berries... I am no expert, but I thought you had to start over every few years with strawberries? I am some of the experts will weigh in. Do you make strawberry wine??? Do tell...

 

[desertcat]

I feel your pain. I, too, have lots of flowers, but no berries. In my case, I think I have critters of some kind that are beating me to them. I'll see a small berry forming and then it's gone. Thinking I need to redo the strawberries in a container of some kind since the ones I grew in pots last year did great.

 

[DawnSuiter]

3 years and then they become weakened and barely put out any berries if any. I was surprised to learn that plants have a life cycle... I thought they lived forever provided they had all they needed... I was wrong. It was time last year to bring in a new crop, so try and get some started this year so you have a good harvest next year.

This is year 3 for one of my beds and harvests are small. I started a new patch of 25 in a new place. Next year I will bury these old ones here and plant 25 more... wait 2 years and repeat... or something like that.

that's my NON expert advice.

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi grow4food,
I agree about renewing the plants. I remember that from the last time I grew them; before the great chicken destruction of the bed........ But there could also be another cause....!!
Have you noticed plenty of pollinating insects, bees etc? This is what we were warned about with the problems bee-keepers were having with whole colonies being wiped out. NO POLLINATORS....!!
Or it could be local crop spraying killing off beneficial insects. I have had this happen to me a few years ago......!!

I would quickly buy some new plants from a local nursery -- we can't have you going without your jam & wine, can we........?!1

Good luck & CHEERS....!!!

Hattie

 

[desertgirl]

I've had the same problem. Bought some (don't remember which kinds) from a Home Depot and planted them in containers, and they made a very low number of great tasting but wierd looking strawberries (I called them Quasi-Moto Berries).

This year I added June and Everbearing varieties, which are already setting fruit. Go figure.

 

[mistyfeather]

Hello! im new from byc! after 3 years till in the old plants into the bed , if you alow the runners to set you can grow them and use them to replentish the bed free plants !

 

[journey11]

Are theses everbearers or junebearers? Everbearers peeter out after about 5 years. Junebearers bear best on last year's runners. pH may be off or something with the soil not meeting their needs. I'd do a soil test to rule that out. Maybe too much nitrogen if the plants look otherwise lush and healthy.

 

[simple life]

Hello! im new from byc! after 3 years till in the old plants into the bed , if you alow the runners to set you can grow them and use them to replentish the bed free plants !

Welcome mistyfeather,
I was wondering about this myself. I have a bed with everbearers and I think a mix of June bearers in there as well.
I had heard you should replace them after three years so I ordered a bunch more to set up in another place.
However I had been thinking about all these new plants that are climbing out of my beds and spreading from the runners, now these should be fine for like another three years correct?
The whole bed is going gangbusters setting fruit.
I was wondering if I should just pull out the mother plants at the end of the season and leave the new ones and maybe dig some up and root them back up in the bed where the mothers were.
Does this make any sense to do?

 

[journey11]

There's a couple different ways you can manage them. Are we talking about raised beds?

With everbearers, they will grow multiple crowns and make more and bigger berries on the mother plants. You can start with your mother plants and keep them up to 5 years, removing all runners, then start a new bed to replace them before they're done, starting their replacements every 4th year. Or (what I think is better) you can take runners (or buy new plants, if you're concerned about disease problems with the originals) and start a new row every year, adding a row each year until you get up to five rows. Then when you get to year 6, tear out all the first row plants and put new plants into that row. Year 7, you would put new plants into year 2's row, so on and so forth. For each newly started row, the spring blooms should be pinched off and not allowed to set fruit (late summer/fall crop is ok). Remove all runners too (except to allow a few to get going as replacements).

Junebearers are handled in an entirely different manner. They are best grown in a flat garden area that you can get into with a tiller. Runners are unstoppable and prolific, but that's ok, because they will grow next year's berries. The mother plants spend most of their energy making runners will make berries the next year, but not nearly as well as the established runners will. So year one with them, you want to pinch all spring runners until the new plants are strong, then let them spend the rest of the summer making runners like crazy. I'll have to double check, but I think spacing is 18" apart each and 3 feet apart rows for the mother plants. The runners will fill in everywhere making what they call a matted row. Next year you would go in with the tiller and till under the original mother plants leaving a row of runners which you will pick your berries from. Same thing the following year, allow runners to go and till the secondary mother plants under.

This is off the top of my memory, but try reading Gene Logsdon's Successful Berry Growing for more details and diagrams. This is an indispensible book IMO and it covers all types of berries in depth.