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Re: Strawberries

Speaking strictly from growing regular june bearing berries:

We always mulch our berries and for a number of reasons not only for winter
protection.  First of all the straw does not actually provide insultation
of any significance to the plants.  The thing that kills overwintering
strawberries is temperature flucations in the winter where it warms up in
Jan for a few days and the plants begin to wake up  a little, and then
night falls in and the temps drop below zero.   That is bad.  The purpose
of the straw mulch (at least in my mind) is to protect the plants from
rapid temp. fluctuations.   If you go out in the late winter and look at
mulched and unmulched ground, the mulched ground will thaw less quickly.  I
feel this benefits the plants by not letting them begin growing too soon.  
If left unmulched they will emerge 2 weeks earlier, and flower earlier, and
most likely put you on frost control alert for 2 weeks longer than
normal....which I don't enjoy.   Also the mulch provides excellent weed
control the following spring and through the harvest.  The final and one of
the most important benefits for me is that the mulch keeps the berries
clean.  If you get a driving thunderstorm anytime from the time fruit is
set till harvest without mulch you will have crunchy berries (that is you
will be eating dirt).  Its not a real big deal if your only gardening for
yourself, but trying to sell muddy strawberries to Pick-Your-berry
customers is a very difficult adventure.  Telling them to put walnuts on
their strawberry Sundae doesn't seem to change their mind either. 

Rick   

----------
> From: Susan W. Smith <sws2@psu.edu>
> To: veggie-list@eskimo.com
> Subject: Re: Strawberries
> Date: Friday, January 09, 1998 11:14 AM
> 
> I planted 25 of each type so I could enjoy strawberries all summer long
but still have lots for jam making in June.   I think I could have let the
fruit come on everbearer type and not picked them back.   Seems to me I got
conflicting information on that variety.  I took great willpower to make
myself wait an entire year for my very own fresh strawberries.
> 
> Another thing that we talked about was mulching the plants over the
winter.  It is recommended to mulch them with straw, or something similar,
when it starts getting cold enough for the ground to freeze.  I did not get
a chance to get the straw down before we got cold weather.  However, the
weather has been so strange this year.   About two weeks age we had 8
inches of snow.  New Year's eve it was about 5 degrees.  Now we are having
55 degree days with rain (El Nino).  Since I was cautioned not to put the
straw down too early and warned about the fact that it could become a
nesting place for rotents, I had mixed feeling about mulching.  So far the
winter has not been that severe and I do not think my plants have suffered.
 However, it is only January and anything can happen.  I still keep
wondering if I should put the mulch down anyway.  Thoughts on this?
> 
> You wrote:
> >Are these summer or everbearing types?
> 
> ----------
> > From: Susan W. Smith <sws2@psu.edu>
> > To: 	
> > Subject: Re: strawberrie
> > Date: Friday, January 09, 1998 8:24 AM
> > 
> > I can't remember off-hand the name of the varieties I planted. But this
> is what I did to put in by strawberries last summer.  I amended the soil
> with conmpost.  Planted my strawberry plants.  I was amazed at how they
> packed 25 plants in such a small package.    The only piching back I did
> was to pinch off all the blossoms so no fruit was produced.  Other than
> that all I did was make sure they got enough water, either from rainfall
or
> the garden hose.  Each plant has put out 3-5 runners and I just let them
> go.  I think some people pinch these runners off.  Is this just to keep
> your patch under control or to keep all the grow in the original plant? 
If
> they keep multiplying at this rate, they will take over my garden on
about
> another year.  
> > 
> >
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