To pinch or not pinch strawberry blossoms..Here's my answer...

[littlelemon]

Journey, thank you so much for taking the time to write out the proper strawberry protocol!

I had everbearing strawberries for the past two years and I wasn't really happy with them- the berries were so small, and I DID pinch the blossoms off the first spring. This year I am going to try some June-bearers. Now, I do have a raised bed for my strawberries. It is 10X3 and I want to put the berries in there, even though you recommended not to. My garden is just packed and I don't want to sacrifice the room right now when I have the empty bed. Should I plant just one row of strawberries right down the middle so that the runners can root on either side of the plant for the following year and have enough room? What would you recommend?

 

[journey11]

I think you could make it work if you put in the extra effort to pinch off most of the extra runners. You'd just have to manage the rows by hand, but that's not too big of a space to be overwhelming.