Crowded Strawberry Bed

[so lucky]

My strawberries have totally overgrown their allotted space, and are so thick you can hardly see the ground at all. Should I just get in there and thin about half or more out? Does it need to be the newer plants that I leave grow? Would it hurt to leave them that thick? Maybe I could just make some foot spaces to stand in.

 

[Nyboy]

Every time I eat a tasteless strawberry from supermarket I swear I am going to plant some, but never do, maybe this spring.

 

[Smart Red]

I just thin by digging out the biggest (oldest) plants. If I'm lucky I have another bed ready to take the plants I dug out. I've found that a too crowded bed means smaller berries.

 

[so lucky]

So if you transplant the old plants, do they produce strawberries this spring? Or just runners?

 

[aftermidnight]

@so lucky one of my gardening mentors method of growing strawberries was...
1st year... First row... New plants, cut all runners off
2nd year.. Let some of the plants bear runners and plantlets, 3rd year snip the runners off this and first row for as long as you have these rows.
3rd year.. Make a second row, plant new plants from runners the previous year, remove runners from these new plants, repeat these rows until you fill your bed.
When your first row stops producing rip them out and start the process again.
Do I do this NO, I don't have the patience, I only have a few plants an old heirloom variety, given to be my mentor, I just keep them going as a remembrance and the odd snack as I pass by them in the garden.
I hope I got this right it can get confusing if I haven't explained it well enough .
Annette

 

[Smart Red]

If I remember correctly, I transplanted mine in the fall after cleaning out a bed to use for the new strawberry plants. Yes, they fruited the next spring. I'm not sure what they would have done if transplanted in the spring. Often the flower buds have already formed so they might fruit.

Also, remember these weren't dug and shipped, but moved across the path a few feet.

 

[baymule]

Ya'll are making me want to plant strawberries.

 

[Nyboy]

Do old plants stop producing berries?

 

[aftermidnight]

@Nyboy they will still produce but they lose their vigor, the berries get smaller and weak plants invite disease.
Annette

 

[thistlebloom]

I must have done it all wrong. Rows? The first summer the rows were discernible, but the next year it was a solid mass of plants. I guess I didn't do too good on keeping the runners trimmed. Weeding and pillbugs made it less fun then it sounded like when I started. Occasionally I'll grow a few now, but not a whole bed again.