Where did you order from? I was thinking of using noursefarms.com. I guess I need to do that soon!

andrea--i got these from miller.
http://www.millernurseries.com/cart.php?m=product_list&c=6

they are very good and reasonable and they work with you on shipping. mark

I bought my strawberries from Daisy Farm and was very happy with the plants and service. Just because I didn't get them planted for over 1 month, wasn't their fault. Even after that amount of time, over 1/2 of the plants survived and produce almost TOO much last year, their 2nd year. I ran out of energy.

We have also bought red raspberries for Nourse, and was very pleased with them.I always buy from companies based north of me so that the plants are more acclimated to my area.

Marla

I think the main secret is to have a lower P.H. soil. I plant among my young pines and the ph stays around 5.5-6, because of all the pine needles in the area but I always add a little ammonium sulfate every spring, but be careful as this makes the weeds spring-board also. I have lost hundreds of strawberries in the last 5 years because of weeds, because of trying to take care of the whole garden myself.
Strawberries hate weeds, big and little weeds will kill your crop by as much as 75%. Mark

I guess I've been lucky. I haven't weeded my strawberry patches for years. We have a more neutral ph, the last I checked, and no pines nearby. Our old patch, Ozark Beauty, lasted about 7 years without any care except picking and mowing off at end of season. Like I said, just lucky.

Marla

A friend of mine gets his blueberry plants from Miller's.

Marla, I like your tip on buying from the north. I'm going to be in FL soon and was thinking about getting some things down there, but maybe that's not a good idea?

Andrea

I got my last strawberries and raspberries from Nourse and was very pleased.

We plant on landscape fabric so don't worry much about weeds. of course we do everbearing which you cut off all runners so synthetic mulch works well. For June bearers I remember a lot of straw and some righteous weeding sessions 2 to 3 times a year. I do not miss June bearing strawberries at all.

I've ordered from both Diasy and Miller. I like to try different companies to see how they compare. This year I bought 1000 plants from www.indianaberry.com
I thought I would try them since I live in Ohio and they would be the closest to my growing conditions.
My order was 500 Earliglow and 500 Surecrop.

I live in IN and was very pleased with Daisy. I've been to Indiana Berry former location in southern IN, but didn't see any plants. I know they are in northern IN now, but haven't checked out their plants. They are also in the signage business.

Marla

I envy Marla. Hasn't weeded for years.
We spent hours and hours last year just keeping the weeds out of 300 plants. And this year we are adding 1000 more.
I've decided to treat this as a regular chore. Each morning I go out to feed the dogs ( 3 Great Pyrenees) and our horse. After doing this I'm just going straight to the stawberries and weed each morning. If I do this maybe I can keep ahead of the weeds. Once they get ahead it's a losing battle.

Indiana Berry closed their operation in Huntungburg and moved it all to Plymouth. I didn't have any problems with Daisy, I just like to try different suppliers. I'll settle on one eventually.
I'm new at this. I retired a couple years ago and my wife said if I don't get out of the house she is going to go crazy and beat with a rolled-up newspaper. So, I bought strawberry plants.

If I remember right, IB is right on 31? They have a large blueberry operation just off the highway. I've bought their blueberries before.

I just didn't get time to do the weeding, and after 7 years the plants died. they were Ozark Beauties, and I haven't tasted anything sweeter. Now we have Jewels and last year (their 2nd full year), we didn't have enough time to pick all of the fruit. Only got 1/2 picked.

Marla

There is a chemical weed killer that can be used on strawberries, but it retards runner growth. I'm sure the big growers (Hundreds of acres) have to use sprays and with their large numbers can afford the less runners. For the rest of us it's "hand and hoe". I wouldn't want to use chemicals anyway. I can get any help I need from the young Amish boys and girls in the area. They earn what they get paid.

What community are you near, churchmouse? I'm not close enough to my community to get help from them, I'm 50 miles away.

Strawberry growers in my area hill their rows and plant through black plastic. The soil is quite sandy and I think they run irrigation tape under the plastic. Others mulch heavily with straw to conserve moisture and battle the weeds.

Most strawberry growers don't worry about runners because they dig the plants up after just 1-2 years. Or at least that's what it looks like in FL fields.

Marla

Marla, We're 25 miles from the closest town, but we are surrounded by large farms. Most of them hire Amish in the area to help out. One Amish family here had 25 children. They grew strawberries too, but their children are all gone now, so they ceased growing.
That probably needs an explaination. The man had 12 children before his wife died. The woman had 13 before she lost her husband. Then they married. That's how they came to have 25 children. You should have seen the size of the house. It's now a home for troubled children.
Fifty miles. I thought we were out in the boonies. I don't think we could live anywhere in Ohio and be 50 miles from a community. We live in a national forest and we're only 25 out.

We used red and black plastic last year. Under the black plastic there were no weeds, but the plants didn't grow very fast. The plants under the red grew like crazy, but so did the weeds. You also had to make sure the plastic was anchored well or the wind would whip it up and take berry plants with it. We decided it was too much of a hassle. This year we're planting rows far enough apart that we can run our small Pony Troy-Bilt tiller down them. We use our large Horse Troy-Bilt to prepare the soil. So, we're going to do hand to hand combat with weeds this year and see who wins.

I'm not 50 from town, only 15. But 50 miles from my Amish community at Rockville, IN. I can image the size of the house, our largest family in that community is 14 children,so far, same mom and dad. But the oldest ones are out of the house now.

Marla

They started with a bakery. When the older girls left they changed to growing strawberries. When all the children were gone they opened a greenhouse.
The Amish started moving here about the same time we did. Then we found out they moved here from the same area we moved from. We have now met several that we knew back there.
It is indeed a small world