Strawberries in short supply?

by Value hunter  

Word from my local farm shop / come garden centre, is that strawberries are in very short supply this year.

"We've tried everywhere for strawberries, no suppliers have them!"

They normally have a half of a poly-tunnel full of them, up to five layers high. On my visit on Tuesday, they were just selling their last three.
So what can you do to improve your strawberry plants this year?

Cuttings:
You've missed the boat this year, ask neighbours if they have smaller plants they don't want/need.

Existing beds:
Your plants should have been starting to come through in the past couple of weeks. Separate them and get them fed on compost.
Weed those beds out early.
You could even move their bed for this year to a different area of your garden, this may improve the yield.
I have been told a few times, that strawberry beds should have new plants mixed in every other year, as over three seasons growing, the plants grow weaker and smaller fruit may come off the crop.
This is why I let mine shoot off and push in the off shoots, so new plants come for free.

One tactic I won't be using this year, is to apply stray/hay around the base.
Under the guise of, "It helps protect the fruit," I tried it last year, all it did was provide plenty of hiding places for slugs!

Happy growing.

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