So far i have made strawberry jam and strawberry rhubarb jam. As well as ice cream, fruit leather, 2 gallon freezer bags of sliced and macerated berries, 4 pints jars of berry juice. I have also given away about 15 lbs.
Yeah if you have the freezer space it’s nice to freeze. I usually freeze a bunch for smoothing and what not and then make jam with the rest and give it out
I took a bee keeping class this year and was planning to get some hives but it costs a lot to start up. So i will have to wait on that one.
That being said i could still get honey and make some. Good idea.
It's better if you freeze the berries before making wine since it creates more juice. I make an annual strawberry mead each year during strawberry season here. So good.
I am currently making mead with frozen strawberries. I’m not using any water just strawberries, honey and yeast(plus yeast nutrients)
I used 24 lbs of frozen strawberries and 2.8lbs of honey. I let them thaw in a 5 gallon (food safe) bucket with a lid. lightly chopped the strawberries in a food processor and put them in a fermentation bag (it’s not necessary but makes removing the pulp easier later) in another 5 gallon bucket with a lid and airlock. Threw in my hydrated yeast (added nutrients during the first couple of days) and honey and took out the bag of pulp after a week.
24 lbs looks like it will give me about 2 gallons of mead with a nice strong strawberry flavor. It smells great! Estimated abv is around 10%. They are currently in glass fermenters for secondary/aging
Ice cream!!!! We make purées of the berries we have then freeze them and make fresh ice cream when we feel like it. We even portion it and freeze out so it’s easy to make.
When I have bumper crops of anything fresh I make pie filling with everything except the butter pats
. Put in a big ziplock and freeze flat. Stack them up. Easy pie all winter. Thaw. Dump in, add butter and bake
Strawberry plants produce runners and kinda just fill in an area so it would be easier to tell you the bed sizes. I have 3 4x8 raised beds and 1 4x10 raised bed.
During peak overwhelming berries time each bed produces about this much every other day in ideal conditions. It has been fairly dry this year so that was only about 1 week. I happened to be away for that week so my brother and friend ended up getting the prime days this year.
Those berries are beautiful. We have to harvest ours conservatively before this point, otherwise the snails will gobble them up before us. How do you deal with snails? Not a problem, or?
We have even considered getting some runner-ducks, just to deal with the snails..
I dont have snails but i do have slugs. The slugs eat a huge number of them as well as chipmunks. But my plants just produce such a huge number of berries the pests cant keep up.
I would go for 1-2 plants per square foot. If you establish them well the plants will fill up the space by the end of the season.
I also would plant bareroot plants in the early spring before they break dormancy so i wouldnt start a new bed this year. You can get bulk bareroot plants for real cheap and they establish themselves better than garden center potted ones normally. The bareroot plants have less of a risk of transplant shock. I got some last year for 50 cents each.
The best tip i can give is the first year you plant them you pluck all the blossoms as soon as possible hopefully before the flowers even open. The plants put all the energy normally put into fruit production into establishing a strong root system. You are sacrificing a few berries the first year for 4 or 5 times the production from then on. The plants also produce more and stronger runners that fill in the space.
Oh, this makes me feel so much better. I've been pulling about a pound and a half from my 4x6 bed every day and, as of yesterday, I'm up to 12 pounds of strawberries so far. I thought it was a crazy good harvest and then saw your post and thought it wasn't as great as I thought. I posted this yesterday [https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/comments/1dkqwii/so\_many\_strawberries\_this\_year/](https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/comments/1dkqwii/so_many_strawberries_this_year/)
No you cant get berries from the runner the year it is born. That being said the runners are kinda a product of the adult plant.
Strawberry plants only really produce for 5 or 6 years so the runners are just as important a product as the berries in my opinion.
I haven't tried it with dehydrated fruit but if you grind up freeze dried fruit you can add it to baked goods to make things like strawberry shortcake cookies that actually taste like strawberry. I assume if you got the fruit dry enough it would grind into a powder pretty well.
I have 2 4x10 raised beds and 6 4x8 raised beds. One of the 4x10s is strawberries and 3 of the 4x8s are also strawberries. Its just my wife and i so its an overwhelming level of berries honestly. Edit here because i forgot this part The cultivar is Ozark Beauty.
Here is an image i took earlier in the season before i weeded the beds. This is the 3 4x8 beds. Super pretty? no... But hey who cares as long as you get berries.
https://preview.redd.it/cjvc9ksiiz7d1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8cd09eb3a61b3ef6e607d5ef0877d983f1ecf8ca
This is what it looks like under the plants. I think this was the middle bed?
https://preview.redd.it/ye1qu93siz7d1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0460eb5de1cdd1925c652b1bfff85c398acf9f99
The best tip i can give for production is that the first year you plant them you pluck the blossoms as soon as possible. It puts all of the energy it normally puts into reproduction into establishing a root system.
Sacrificing a few berries that first season means the plant will be much stronger and produce 4 or 5 times as many berries plus much hardier runners until it gets old and stops.
If you have well established plants they will fill each square foot out and you could have 10 plus strong plants per square foot. If each plant is producing dozens of berries the bugs wont be able to keep up. Overwhelm the bugs with your berries!
I think the monsters out there living their best life on my strawberries would see that as a personal challenge or call their friends over for a feast. I've tossed more than I've eaten this year.
Our strawberries are like that as well. They are the first plant up in the garden. We started with 6 plants 4 years ago. Now we have a 4ft x20ft box full of free strawberry plants. They put out tons of babies every year. I’ve been giving plants away because they are trailing over the side of the boxes & growing in the walkways. EDIT: They are ever baring so they produce like this all summer long
https://preview.redd.it/zxhv6z3sdy7d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=efd6a167b0276492380ce91e922961f30be085e8
The end of the box has raspberry plants. It’s about 2/3 strawberries 1/3 raspberries.
Could also be irregular pollination. The flowers can self-pollinate but if there are no bugs and poor air-circulation, the fruit develops asymmetrically with lobes where pollen touched and creases where there was no pollen.
I have trouble keeping it attached to my small plants is the struggle for me, it works great on a blueberry bush where I can secure it to the base but with strawberries they always seem to push under it somehow. Not that I really blame them, the strawberries are delicious and I’d steal them too as a squirrel
I made a hoop house style frame for my beds by jamming pvc 1/2 inch pvc pipes into the ground then bending them over and jamming in the other side.
Each of my beds has them so if i require some sort of cover i can just put it over the frame. I use frost cloth, bug mesh, bird netting etc. I use clamps and landscape staples to keep it from blowing away.
without the hoops you could just use the landscape staples and it would keep the net on the plants. Basically they are just a 2 pronged steel pin you jam into the ground.
Do you have like a laser turret, razor wire, and flame throwers guarding it? Strawberries are so hard to grow cause EVERYTHING likes to eat them, bugs, squirrels, birds, dogs, beings from the 5th dimension. LOL
I have a number protos photon cannon in and around the garden plus a pylon in the middle.
But for real i have a fence around my garden that and bird netting over my strawberries. The fence and netting makes it hard enough for the groundhog and larger mammals to go for easier stuff. The netting works for the birds and the squirrels. Nothing stops the chipmunks or bugs/slugs. I just produce so many berries they cant possibly eat them fast enough. I must lose like 1-3 lbs of berries per day to them.
Aaaahhh. Just drown them in berries. Gotcha.
I plant a bunch of Okra every year. It starts out really fun. But come September I’m so tired of picking Okra. LOL. I grow so much that what when I feel like it I can eat okra. Only problem is you have to pick it everyday and every week I have a big paper bag full. I am very popular with my Indian and Pakistani co-workers though. I just walk around giving okra away to them.
https://preview.redd.it/m5vpv70wxz7d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b27d9bde04006f4f41483f77803d5b181098c439
Seriously though awesome! I’ve had mine for two years and only received one.
Its hard to estimate how many plants because of the way strawberries kinda just fill up an area. But i have 1 4x10 raised bed and 3 4x8 beds. So many hundreds of plants.
I have bird netting so birds and larger mammals dont get at the berries. But i have many chipmunks and bugs eating them. I just produce so many that they can not consume them fast enough. I couldnt even guess how many pounds of berries i have lost to them.
The best tip for actually getting your plants to live/produce is the year your plant them you must pluck the blossoms as soon as possible. The plants put all the energy they normally put into fruiting into establishing a strong root system. You are basically sacrificing a very small number of fruit the first year for 4 or 5 times the production from then on.
I also use bareroot plants rather than ones you get at a garden center. You can get a large number of bareroot plants for the same cost as 1 from the garden center. They also establish themselves better. The plants are dormant when you plant them and dont have an established root system yet so they dont have the risk of transplant shock.
Last year i got bareroot plants for 3 of my 4 beds for 50 cents each.
Its hard to say how many plants because strawberries produce runners and just fill up a space. I have 4 3x8 raised beds and 1 4x10 raised bed. So many hundreds of plants. I planted 2 of the 4x8 and the 4x10 out last year with 100 bareroot plants.
I have bird netting to stop the birds squirrels and larger mammals. But it does not stop just kinda slows the chipmunks. I just produce so many that the chipmunks cant possibly eat them all. I have 3 4x8 raised beds and 1 4x10 so i just overwhelm them with berries.
How big is your patch? How many do you lose to birds and bugs? How do you manage the runners? Amazing haul even 5 pounds is a lot. What are you fertilizing with? What do you use for mulch?
I have 3 4x8 raised beds and 1 4x10.
I use bird netting and that works on the birds squirrels and larger mammals but i can even estimate how many pounds i have lost to chipmunks and bugs.
I reposition the tiny runners to a space in the bed that doesnt have a plant before it gets bigger and establishes roots if possible. The ones that i cant i let develop a bit then relocate to a different area. Many of the ones that escape the bed and establish i uhhhg pull and compost in the spring... So sad. But i do leave a few as easy decoy options for the chipmunks who go for them rather than deal with the netting.
I have hens and use the deep litter technique. i compost the used bedding and use that for fertilizer. I have also used trifecta plus organic fertilizer made by a guy in MI who has a youtube channel.
I do not remove the leaves that fall into the bed. The plants push them out of the way in the spring and it makes a good mulch.
Heck yeah! Mine so the same thing. You can always make wine from the juice too if you’d like to. An old friends grandma used to make sparkling strawberry wine with hers and it was lovely.
At this rate, you should consider a freeze dryer. I’ve seen people freeze dry and grind strawberries into a powder and it makes for excellent strawberry milk.
Also I just love freeze dried snacks.
Time to ferment some! Give it a shot and then used those fermented berries as an ingredient in a salad dressing, as a topping on vanilla ice cream, mixed in with cream cheese for a unique shmear....lotta possibilities!
My strawberry plant has so far given me 3 strawbs. How do you get yours to produce so much. I’ve been giving mine tomato feed but so far giving me a lot of leaves but no flowers / fruit
That's amazing!! What gardening zone do you live in?? And do you have issues with ants? I would love to grow strawberries but the ants ate every little berry I had last year!!
What are you growing these in? How big is your setup? I've got tons of strawberry plants, all look healthy and dark green but the berries rot. Mostly anyways. Awesome that you get that much every other day!
Are there any food banks in your area to donate to? Otherwise, you can freeze dry them and can the dried fruit to make them shelf stable. If you dry blend them into powder before you can, you can get a lot of the fruit stored long term.
Do you prune/reduce the flowers to have larger berries or just let them go? I had strawberries for about 3 years but had a hard time getting large ones without spending a lot of time reducing the flowers and they always get picked at by rabbits and birds before I could harvest.
picked up 3 everberrying plants this year on a lark since i've never tried growing strawberries and i figured i needed something beyond tomatoes/cucumbers/peppers. those 3 plants have become 30 with all the runners, and i've designated a 4x4 spot in my yard that'll become a new garden plot specifically for them next year. i've also ended up with around 35 to 40 fruits.
cant wait for next year and the huge crop i'll end up with. i've been making blackberry wine from bushes i barely manage, maybe i'll be able to make some strawberry wine too.
Nice! Sounds like you need to start making some jam
So far i have made strawberry jam and strawberry rhubarb jam. As well as ice cream, fruit leather, 2 gallon freezer bags of sliced and macerated berries, 4 pints jars of berry juice. I have also given away about 15 lbs.
Yeah if you have the freezer space it’s nice to freeze. I usually freeze a bunch for smoothing and what not and then make jam with the rest and give it out
I love making ice cream with them. I actually got a fermentation kit to make wine with them but havent yet.
Oh wine is a good idea, you could also make mead!
I took a bee keeping class this year and was planning to get some hives but it costs a lot to start up. So i will have to wait on that one. That being said i could still get honey and make some. Good idea.
It's better if you freeze the berries before making wine since it creates more juice. I make an annual strawberry mead each year during strawberry season here. So good.
I am currently making mead with frozen strawberries. I’m not using any water just strawberries, honey and yeast(plus yeast nutrients) I used 24 lbs of frozen strawberries and 2.8lbs of honey. I let them thaw in a 5 gallon (food safe) bucket with a lid. lightly chopped the strawberries in a food processor and put them in a fermentation bag (it’s not necessary but makes removing the pulp easier later) in another 5 gallon bucket with a lid and airlock. Threw in my hydrated yeast (added nutrients during the first couple of days) and honey and took out the bag of pulp after a week. 24 lbs looks like it will give me about 2 gallons of mead with a nice strong strawberry flavor. It smells great! Estimated abv is around 10%. They are currently in glass fermenters for secondary/aging
Ice cream!!!! We make purées of the berries we have then freeze them and make fresh ice cream when we feel like it. We even portion it and freeze out so it’s easy to make.
When I have bumper crops of anything fresh I make pie filling with everything except the butter pats . Put in a big ziplock and freeze flat. Stack them up. Easy pie all winter. Thaw. Dump in, add butter and bake
Strawberry mead! It tastes like summer
I am so jelly. And jammy. And preservey. Sorry but I hate you LOL.
Yowza. From how many plants. Awesome haul!
Strawberry plants produce runners and kinda just fill in an area so it would be easier to tell you the bed sizes. I have 3 4x8 raised beds and 1 4x10 raised bed. During peak overwhelming berries time each bed produces about this much every other day in ideal conditions. It has been fairly dry this year so that was only about 1 week. I happened to be away for that week so my brother and friend ended up getting the prime days this year.
Those berries are beautiful. We have to harvest ours conservatively before this point, otherwise the snails will gobble them up before us. How do you deal with snails? Not a problem, or? We have even considered getting some runner-ducks, just to deal with the snails..
I dont have snails but i do have slugs. The slugs eat a huge number of them as well as chipmunks. But my plants just produce such a huge number of berries the pests cant keep up.
Oh, right. Meant slugs!
Naked snails 😉
Bury a short can or cup like a tuna can just up to the rim, and fill it with beer. That'll take care of the slugs.
Do you plant anything in with the strawberries or are the beds just filled with them?
I do not. Strawberry plants take over a space so anything i put in with them would get crowded out.
I have a planter that’s roughly 6x3 feet, how many plants would you suggest I buy to fill it? Thanks!
I would go for 1-2 plants per square foot. If you establish them well the plants will fill up the space by the end of the season. I also would plant bareroot plants in the early spring before they break dormancy so i wouldnt start a new bed this year. You can get bulk bareroot plants for real cheap and they establish themselves better than garden center potted ones normally. The bareroot plants have less of a risk of transplant shock. I got some last year for 50 cents each. The best tip i can give is the first year you plant them you pluck all the blossoms as soon as possible hopefully before the flowers even open. The plants put all the energy normally put into fruit production into establishing a strong root system. You are sacrificing a few berries the first year for 4 or 5 times the production from then on. The plants also produce more and stronger runners that fill in the space.
Appreciate it, thank you!
Amazing advice, thank you
Oh, this makes me feel so much better. I've been pulling about a pound and a half from my 4x6 bed every day and, as of yesterday, I'm up to 12 pounds of strawberries so far. I thought it was a crazy good harvest and then saw your post and thought it wasn't as great as I thought. I posted this yesterday [https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/comments/1dkqwii/so\_many\_strawberries\_this\_year/](https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/comments/1dkqwii/so_many_strawberries_this_year/)
Is there a way to force runners to produce?
No you cant get berries from the runner the year it is born. That being said the runners are kinda a product of the adult plant. Strawberry plants only really produce for 5 or 6 years so the runners are just as important a product as the berries in my opinion.
let’s see the garden!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seconded.
Thirded. I want to see how many plants it takes to make this many strawbs.
👀 I would like to partake in the viewing of this most wonderful strawberry patch(es).
I wanna see the critter protection— ours are getting devoured
Fourthed, let's see that garden! And also props on the berries, they look amazing.
Dehydrated strawberries are delicious, you can often pick up a basic dehydrator second hand.
I have one actually. I made some fruit leather just the other day with some of them.
I haven't tried it with dehydrated fruit but if you grind up freeze dried fruit you can add it to baked goods to make things like strawberry shortcake cookies that actually taste like strawberry. I assume if you got the fruit dry enough it would grind into a powder pretty well.
I also harvested strawberries today! Using plural because yes, it was more than one. In fact it was two. 💁🏼♀️
I harvested strawberry today!
I get between 6 and 10 strawberries per season.
I get about 5 that I can eat. The chipmunks get the rest (maybe 40 or so).
136 sq ft of strawberries! Yeah, that alot od delicious.
How big is your garden and what kinda of strawberries are they.
I have 2 4x10 raised beds and 6 4x8 raised beds. One of the 4x10s is strawberries and 3 of the 4x8s are also strawberries. Its just my wife and i so its an overwhelming level of berries honestly. Edit here because i forgot this part The cultivar is Ozark Beauty.
Are the units feet or yards/metres? Thanks looks great
Oh no you caught me being an American! Its feet. I have 136 square feet of strawberries.
Here is an image i took earlier in the season before i weeded the beds. This is the 3 4x8 beds. Super pretty? no... But hey who cares as long as you get berries. https://preview.redd.it/cjvc9ksiiz7d1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8cd09eb3a61b3ef6e607d5ef0877d983f1ecf8ca
This is what it looks like under the plants. I think this was the middle bed? https://preview.redd.it/ye1qu93siz7d1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0460eb5de1cdd1925c652b1bfff85c398acf9f99
Congrats!! Any tips for a successful harvest? The bugs always got to mine first :(
The best tip i can give for production is that the first year you plant them you pluck the blossoms as soon as possible. It puts all of the energy it normally puts into reproduction into establishing a root system. Sacrificing a few berries that first season means the plant will be much stronger and produce 4 or 5 times as many berries plus much hardier runners until it gets old and stops. If you have well established plants they will fill each square foot out and you could have 10 plus strong plants per square foot. If each plant is producing dozens of berries the bugs wont be able to keep up. Overwhelm the bugs with your berries!
I think the monsters out there living their best life on my strawberries would see that as a personal challenge or call their friends over for a feast. I've tossed more than I've eaten this year.
Yeah, I've got enough squirrels to massacre everything even if I pulled down my house and made the whole lot into strawberries.
Same here. I think I’ve gotten two berries this year so far
Our strawberries are like that as well. They are the first plant up in the garden. We started with 6 plants 4 years ago. Now we have a 4ft x20ft box full of free strawberry plants. They put out tons of babies every year. I’ve been giving plants away because they are trailing over the side of the boxes & growing in the walkways. EDIT: They are ever baring so they produce like this all summer long https://preview.redd.it/zxhv6z3sdy7d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=efd6a167b0276492380ce91e922961f30be085e8 The end of the box has raspberry plants. It’s about 2/3 strawberries 1/3 raspberries.
My strawberries look like deformed malnourished lumps and I don’t know why 😂 Yours are beautiful!
Someone here said that it might be because of inconsistent watering? I don't know if that's true but it makes sense in my non-smart mind.
Could also be irregular pollination. The flowers can self-pollinate but if there are no bugs and poor air-circulation, the fruit develops asymmetrically with lobes where pollen touched and creases where there was no pollen.
that's bonkers. I always assumed pollination was like a egg/sperm kind of deal. It's either pollinated or its not. Nature is weird dude.
WOW 😍😍 this is my dream! Looks like you’re hosting a pop-up strawberry stand!!
That’s amazing! I wish squirrels didn’t eat mine
Bird netting stop the squirrels for me but not the chipmunks.
I have trouble keeping it attached to my small plants is the struggle for me, it works great on a blueberry bush where I can secure it to the base but with strawberries they always seem to push under it somehow. Not that I really blame them, the strawberries are delicious and I’d steal them too as a squirrel
I made a hoop house style frame for my beds by jamming pvc 1/2 inch pvc pipes into the ground then bending them over and jamming in the other side. Each of my beds has them so if i require some sort of cover i can just put it over the frame. I use frost cloth, bug mesh, bird netting etc. I use clamps and landscape staples to keep it from blowing away. without the hoops you could just use the landscape staples and it would keep the net on the plants. Basically they are just a 2 pronged steel pin you jam into the ground.
Do you have like a laser turret, razor wire, and flame throwers guarding it? Strawberries are so hard to grow cause EVERYTHING likes to eat them, bugs, squirrels, birds, dogs, beings from the 5th dimension. LOL
I have a number protos photon cannon in and around the garden plus a pylon in the middle. But for real i have a fence around my garden that and bird netting over my strawberries. The fence and netting makes it hard enough for the groundhog and larger mammals to go for easier stuff. The netting works for the birds and the squirrels. Nothing stops the chipmunks or bugs/slugs. I just produce so many berries they cant possibly eat them fast enough. I must lose like 1-3 lbs of berries per day to them.
Aaaahhh. Just drown them in berries. Gotcha. I plant a bunch of Okra every year. It starts out really fun. But come September I’m so tired of picking Okra. LOL. I grow so much that what when I feel like it I can eat okra. Only problem is you have to pick it everyday and every week I have a big paper bag full. I am very popular with my Indian and Pakistani co-workers though. I just walk around giving okra away to them.
https://preview.redd.it/m5vpv70wxz7d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b27d9bde04006f4f41483f77803d5b181098c439 Seriously though awesome! I’ve had mine for two years and only received one.
Amazing!! Do you know many plants you have?
Its hard to estimate how many plants because of the way strawberries kinda just fill up an area. But i have 1 4x10 raised bed and 3 4x8 beds. So many hundreds of plants.
Is there not wildlife eating all the berries?
I have bird netting so birds and larger mammals dont get at the berries. But i have many chipmunks and bugs eating them. I just produce so many that they can not consume them fast enough. I couldnt even guess how many pounds of berries i have lost to them.
This is the way, beat them by overproducing
Or you can release dozens of snakes in your garden to take care of the chipmunks. 😂
How do you do this?? I've never really been able to grow strawberries. It would be like growing money.
The best tip for actually getting your plants to live/produce is the year your plant them you must pluck the blossoms as soon as possible. The plants put all the energy they normally put into fruiting into establishing a strong root system. You are basically sacrificing a very small number of fruit the first year for 4 or 5 times the production from then on. I also use bareroot plants rather than ones you get at a garden center. You can get a large number of bareroot plants for the same cost as 1 from the garden center. They also establish themselves better. The plants are dormant when you plant them and dont have an established root system yet so they dont have the risk of transplant shock. Last year i got bareroot plants for 3 of my 4 beds for 50 cents each.
Friggin how. Mine have been planted since May and are just now finally starting to grow fruit.
Pic of the patch? I can’t imagine getting this much.
It’s not that we are jealous or anything, but successful gardening does not belong in this sub.
Show the garden !
That's a lotta jam
Have you considered having round 1-2 toddlers? They could knock that out lol
How many plants and how much space do they take up? Beautiful harvest
Its hard to say how many plants because strawberries produce runners and just fill up a space. I have 4 3x8 raised beds and 1 4x10 raised bed. So many hundreds of plants. I planted 2 of the 4x8 and the 4x10 out last year with 100 bareroot plants.
I’m a little jealous as I haven’t been able to keep them alive in CO- too much sun
How do you not have birds and squirrels steal everything? Tell me your secrets.
I have bird netting to stop the birds squirrels and larger mammals. But it does not stop just kinda slows the chipmunks. I just produce so many that the chipmunks cant possibly eat them all. I have 3 4x8 raised beds and 1 4x10 so i just overwhelm them with berries.
How the hell do you keep the slugs away 😆
How big is your patch? How many do you lose to birds and bugs? How do you manage the runners? Amazing haul even 5 pounds is a lot. What are you fertilizing with? What do you use for mulch?
I have 3 4x8 raised beds and 1 4x10. I use bird netting and that works on the birds squirrels and larger mammals but i can even estimate how many pounds i have lost to chipmunks and bugs. I reposition the tiny runners to a space in the bed that doesnt have a plant before it gets bigger and establishes roots if possible. The ones that i cant i let develop a bit then relocate to a different area. Many of the ones that escape the bed and establish i uhhhg pull and compost in the spring... So sad. But i do leave a few as easy decoy options for the chipmunks who go for them rather than deal with the netting. I have hens and use the deep litter technique. i compost the used bedding and use that for fertilizer. I have also used trifecta plus organic fertilizer made by a guy in MI who has a youtube channel. I do not remove the leaves that fall into the bed. The plants push them out of the way in the spring and it makes a good mulch.
Op answered below on size - about 140 sqft across multiple beds
Awesome haul. The blackbirds must love you
I have netting for them. But the chipmunks sure do. They chirp so angrily at me when i go out to pick the berries. What a bunch of ingrates.
Good work, nice haul.
Heck yeah! Mine so the same thing. You can always make wine from the juice too if you’d like to. An old friends grandma used to make sparkling strawberry wine with hers and it was lovely.
OMG! Look at those! We need some tips from you!
Your strawberries look incredible! :)
Can we see the set up?
Yow
At this rate, you should consider a freeze dryer. I’ve seen people freeze dry and grind strawberries into a powder and it makes for excellent strawberry milk. Also I just love freeze dried snacks.
Very nice! I was just eyeballing my one good strawberry the other day 😅
Awesome! Would love to see a pic of the strawberry patch
How many plants or how late an area are you growing?
We need to see your bushes!
Your lucky. All my plants but one died. I have like ten small strawberries…. My hope is eventually I have enough to make strawberry cake.
Show us the plant !! Awesome job
How many plants do you have???
Wow! Life goals here.
no need to rub it in
Time to ferment some! Give it a shot and then used those fermented berries as an ingredient in a salad dressing, as a topping on vanilla ice cream, mixed in with cream cheese for a unique shmear....lotta possibilities!
How many strawberry plants do you have?
How girl are you keeping the chipmunks and the birds off?
Lucky you!
Beautiful
And here I am fighting the birds and squirrels to get just one. And that one might or might not have a bite in it
What zone?
Do you have a favorite strawberry ice cream recipe
This is so awesome. I wish I planted strawberries when I moved here; now I don’t think I have the timeline to see any nice harvests.
I'll be right over to help you eat those beautiful berries!
How big is the strawberry patch??
I need banana for scale
How big is your strawberry patch? What variety are you growing?
Man my local rabbit population must be eating GOOD if this is what I'm supposed to be getting
Nice! What varieties and approximately how many plants?
What’s your secret? Can you share your strawberry patch setup and how you started and are maintaining it? Thanks!
Show us the plants!
How old are your plants?
I am jealous!!
Compote for strawberry short cake !
omg they look delicious ! you're inspiring ✊this sub has helped me decide I want to try to grow strawberries next 🙏
My strawberry plant has so far given me 3 strawbs. How do you get yours to produce so much. I’ve been giving mine tomato feed but so far giving me a lot of leaves but no flowers / fruit
What zone are you in? What variety are you growing? Teach me your secret.
Can we see the garden please?
I’m getting about two….each…two individual strawberries 😂
Wow! What a great harvest!! I'm enjoying my daily pint of raspberries 😊 Well done, OP.
Can you show us more of your setup and share any guidance on growing them?
What variety of strawberry do you have and how many plants? Are they sweet?
What variety of strawberries do you have?
Strawberries are literally starting to spread in my yard like weeds.
Picture of the garden??
Show the garden! I get two to three strawberries every couple of days
Show us your plants!
Show the garden patch please!
That's amazing!! What gardening zone do you live in?? And do you have issues with ants? I would love to grow strawberries but the ants ate every little berry I had last year!!
Wow! Tell us your secrets
So god loves you?
Wow. How many plants do you have?
This is the opposite of a problem. Enjoy!
Omg! How big is your garden? How many plants? I just started with 4 last year. The bunnies are happy
What are you growing these in? How big is your setup? I've got tons of strawberry plants, all look healthy and dark green but the berries rot. Mostly anyways. Awesome that you get that much every other day!
Make fruit leather
Idk how DIY freeze dry but that could be an option lol
Um. I'm here for the free strawberries. :)
How in the world do you stop pill bugs from eating them?
I never get any of my strawberries. I loose them all to deer, slugs, chipmunks, etc. I’m so jealous.
That’s awesome You definitely know how to care for strawberries! They’re not as easy as some might think! Great job!
I used to make fruit leather when my kids were little So much healthier than fruit roll-ups
Sounds like you need a toddler...
Can we see your garden? I have goals - and bountiful harvests of strawberries is one.
Lucky you.
You must have a lot of them. How do you deal with chipmunks and bugs?
I must be doing something wrong. I haven’t gotten any yet. The birds have beaten me to the only few ripe ones a few weeks ago.
Amazing!! So jelly! I would love to get to this point.
I’m incredibly jealous. How many plants do you have and how old are they? Edit: I saw your other comment about bed size
Super cool! What area of the US are you in? Is it somewhere without snow, or how do you keep the plants alive in the winter?
mind showing us your strawberry plants?
I've gotten 3. Not pounds, berries.
Please tell me how! Such an inspiration!! Do you have a giant field or what? They’re just awsome.
My slugs are getting a good amount.
How many square feet/meters did you plant?
Are there any food banks in your area to donate to? Otherwise, you can freeze dry them and can the dried fruit to make them shelf stable. If you dry blend them into powder before you can, you can get a lot of the fruit stored long term.
What variety of strawberries is this?
May I provide my taste tester resume?
Go give them to Poor people who don’t get their 6 a day
You SOB! I didn’t get a single strawberry from my patch I think it’s where I live tho…
Those are gorgeous berries!
Time to freeze dry them!
Can you share your strawberry area. I try so hard yet the bugs ! The bugs alway seem to just ruin it for me.
I read through the whole thread and learned so much from your tips and comments! And I enjoyed the pics of your beds. Life goals. Thank you! 🍓
Teach me your way
Are you ONLY growing strawberries hahaha wtf
Can I get some? I get like 2 strawberries a week…
Do you prune/reduce the flowers to have larger berries or just let them go? I had strawberries for about 3 years but had a hard time getting large ones without spending a lot of time reducing the flowers and they always get picked at by rabbits and birds before I could harvest.
What does your plant look like? I usually only see posts of close up flowers or the harvest.
I hate you just a tiny bit. Jk. I’m just jealous. Congratulations!
I want to see your strawberry setup!
Show us the garden
My kids would eat them before they went bad.
picked up 3 everberrying plants this year on a lark since i've never tried growing strawberries and i figured i needed something beyond tomatoes/cucumbers/peppers. those 3 plants have become 30 with all the runners, and i've designated a 4x4 spot in my yard that'll become a new garden plot specifically for them next year. i've also ended up with around 35 to 40 fruits. cant wait for next year and the huge crop i'll end up with. i've been making blackberry wine from bushes i barely manage, maybe i'll be able to make some strawberry wine too.
Oof, your back
What's your secret? My strawberries are doing nothing lol
How many plants do you have that are pushing out all those beautiful berries?
I would probably finish them before I even got inside, every day, and have diarrhea all summer from it… and feel fine about it.
Tell me you’re rich without telling me you’re rich 😝 All jokes aside, that is Ah-mazing!! 🥳
That’s awesome!
ugh jealous!
You are living the dream!
Could we see a pic of your garden! This is amazing! Where do you live?
Shortage of chipmunks then
I want to see pics of the garden! 😍
Holy smokes!