9

I'm moving into a new house that has a good sized strawberry patch on one of the corners of the lawn. I want to build a large raised bed for it and help it spread out more. If I build the border of the bed, and just gradually fill it in with soil, will strawberries be able to handle that? If so, how quickly can I fill it up and when would be the best time to do this? Is there anything I should avoid?

Also, is there a term for this? "raised bed" seems to only refer to a structure built before plants are planted, which makes sense.

J. Musser
  • 51,627
  • 21
  • 115
  • 320
William Denny
  • 93
  • 4
  • 2
    Don't worry - Just dig them out after fruiting, and replant them once you've done the raising. Strawberries seem to suffer from virus infections after about 3 yrs, so just pick healthy runners and re plant them. –  Mar 27 '16 at 16:13

3 Answers3

6

Like many other perennials, strawberry plants grow from a crown at ground level. If you add soil, it will result in elongated, weakened crown growth and eventually health failure. Instead, dig out some of them, to replant after the new bed is prepared. Cut the leaves back, and gently remove the spil.

You can figure out your desired spacing, and then calculate how many you want in the new bed. Save only young, strong growing crowns (like the ones pictured below). Keep them in a moist but aired environment (such as between damp papers in a box), in a cool place. Or if you are going to need more than 2 weeks to prepare the bed, heel them in (temporarily plant them) in a shady area.

Pictured below are healthy, young, bareroot strawberry crowns.

enter image description here

J. Musser
  • 51,627
  • 21
  • 115
  • 320
4

You can definitely transplant strawberries. Best thing would be to remove the strawberry plants (especially the younger ones) completely, build a raised bed per your requirements and then plant the strawberries in the raised bed. You should be fine doing that.

JStorage
  • 7,844
  • 6
  • 32
  • 72
1

I have been raising my strawberry bed soil level gradually for several years (zone 7). I add no more than 1 inch of soil height per year during the winter (along with fertilizer and amendments). Any weak or unproductive crowns get pulled in late summer/autumn to make way for newly rooting runners. I am growing everybearing varieties - which is a total misnomer, as I've gotten only 1 flush in early summer...:(

Anne
  • 11
  • 1