Strawberries

We got some plants from friends about 3 or 4 years ago and put them in a whiskey barrell. we got a few berries (3 or 4) each year. This year I divided them, put the extra in another large dish, and got 5 or 6 berries.

How do I get strawberries to give me 3 or 4 per plant and a total of 100 or 200 berries?

They are in full sun and watered daily, fertilized during the growing season with full strength 20-20-20 with micro nutrients. What am I doing wrong?

My understanding is that you need to rotate your strawberries. Plants only produce well for a year or two. Many people plant a row and let the row send out runners to another row . They harvest the first row one year and then turn it under, harvesting from the second row the second year, and so forth.

Kathy, I have heard the same thing about using the new plants and removing the older ones. I have also had much more success with my strawberries if they are planted in the ground rather than containers. The down side is, containers "contain" them rather than letting them take over the area that they are planted.

Strawberry harvesting from plants on the ground is so fraught with slug encountering potential that I am trying potted ones. I planted "daughters" in hanging pots in spring and they are positively dripping with daughter plants now. My hope is that I will have strawberries suspended above the slugs next spring. Anybody have success this way? I'm thinking the upside down tomatoe thingys that were sold everywhere this year might be the perfect hanging container. By the way, they do need lots of water. Mine are getting automatically watered and have really flourished.

I've seen that done, but I'm horrid about keeping plants in hanging pots alive. I'll be interested in hearing how they do. It must make harvesting easier.

Yes Katie, the only reason these have flourished is because they are watered automatically. I extended my watering system to include them so they have been watered regularly. Otherwise, me too. I usually avoid containers because of water issues. This year I got real ambitious and it paid off. But the real test for the strawberries will be in the spring.

I bought a little set up for automatic watering of my pots. But do you think I've used it yet? Got to get on that . . . :-)

I have an upside down tomato hanger. Yes it works, but requires you to give it a 5 gallon watering even if it in the poring rain. Next year they go in the cloche.

I've had the best luck with strawberries when I move them. This year I relocated a patch and got huge sweet berries from an otherwise rather insipid bunch. Maybe they exhaust the soil of something after a couple years? I've tried but rarely had any luck with strawberry pots - same as others, I don't water them enough and they just shrivel up.

I have some friends that are trying milk crates lined with trash bags stacked on each other with the plants growing out the sides. DW and I am thinking about starting fresh next year, with new plants in our barrel.

Is it possible to cut off the new plants and get them to root? And use those to generate the new crop?

Yes. When I rejuvenate my plants, I dig up everything and then split them out into however many little babies are hanging on, and discard the mother plant. Seems to work fine. I also had little plants in my old patch that must have come up from stray roots. I just composted those, although one could use them to fill in.

Thanks for the knowledge. That's what I will do with the plants hanging from the side of the barrel.

I used metal fencing about 30" tall and formed it into a circle. Originally I put them around the potatoes to contain their sprawl. After harvesting those potatoes I put it in the midst of the strawberries and I have been redirecting all the runners up over the sides of it. So now they are dangling all around this framework. I'm not sure if you can picture this but it is my backup for the hanging pots. I'll see if I can rev up my camera and take a picture.