Can you help me plan a strawberry bed, please?

I make no apologies for planning ahead - esp. while it's snowing outside! And I'd love the expert opinions of the good GC members here, please.

I have enough scrap wood to make some plant beds and one of my first priorities is a strawberry bed inside my polytunnel.

At the moment I'm thinking of from the bottom-upwards:
2" of shredded newspaper - bed for the composting worms
12" of old horse manure - with composting worms
sprinkling of wood ashes - the odd poultry manure pellet
9" of compost and worm-castings
Seeper hosepipe
black polythene
(I can make the bed as long as I need.)
I will feed the plants a compost tea most times with the occasional straight rain-water and rarer tap-water for those urgent moments.)

I had a good strawb harvest last year but I'm wanting a big improvement this year, plus I want the strawb' bed to last for three years before I take it down and re-new the contents.

Do you think using Mycorrhizal Fungi might help in terms of MF cost to yield?

Many thanks for reading me and for your time to post.

 

No idea, FB; but, to my (ignorant) mind, that does sound very "belt and braces"

I bought a couple of strawberry plants the other week and, so far, my approach has been to put them outside, and wait and see They do have options: live or die

Last year I planted some strawberry plants (Lidl's, or maybe Aldi's) and I never saw so much as a sprout! Think mice may have got there first?)

I shall watch this thread with interest though (always open minded and willing to learn )

 

Thanks, Mum.
Well, I had originally put my first lot of strawb's in big pots with good compost and worm-poop and they did well and grew like bushes. A neighbour put hers in a grow bag and they did very poorly indeed with just a few leaves and no fruit. I made the noob mistake of allowing my first-yearlings to fruit and now they are going into their second year and so I want to get as bountiful as possible.

 

Sorry, can't really help, but one thing springs to mind. Why waste valuable poly space on strawbs? They thrive perfectly fine outside in our climate. I'd say save the tunnel space for more tender crops.

 

A valuable point indeed. I may reconsider putting strawb' beds outside with bird netting. Or I might try half-and-half and see if there's a big enough difference in yields. Thanks for the thought, clueless1.

 

Can anyone help with a few borage plants or seeds, please? Many thanks.

 

Half and half sounds like a viable experiment! Plus, the results would be very useful to know, FB

 

I might be able to do just that! Except, I only knew I was growing borage a few weeks ago If you are still in need next Autumn, I can supply you some (Gardening is for life; not just this season )

 

Yes, please and thank you - and certainly; gardening is for life - and health!

 

Okay, FB I'll put you on my "borage" seed harvesting list!

 

e2a: Night night all. It's been a long day!

 

An update to the strawb' beds - I think I'm going to include sharp sand (I'll get one of those big 1tonne bags) and I might put shredded paper in the top layer to help with aeration and drainage. That would be a first.

 

Interesting thread. I just planted my runners into the ground with no added compost, they are planted in the black plastic. I planted first bed in Nov 2011 and got 60lb of strawberries in 2012. It was a very bad year for strawberries. I have approx. 90 plants in that bed.

The other bed was planted in march/april and I got none.

This year will be interesting as I am growing 21 varieties in different beds, baskets and inside the polytunnels.

 

Time & enthusiasm permitting, I was thinking vertical this year - I have some spare de-ivyed wall that gets the sun most of the day so looks like the ideal place to fix up some deep guttering & grow some strawberries. Ive also started off some strawberry plants from teeny tiny seed to see if I can get from Seed to fruit in one year. So far its looking like getting from Seed to anything appearing at all is going to be a challenge but its still early..

 

I have grown quite a few strawberries from seed, this year well see if they fruit. I sowed them last may.

Going to grow some more this month. I use heated propagation and they are very slow growing.

Last years videos are on my youtube page. Look for juliedrake23.

Hope you do well, can be interesting if you produce a video diary with your phone.