Homer...I planted 4 per square, and I get a ton of strawberries. But, I do clip the runners to keep the energy in the main plant. I cant really say that I have had the original plants in there the whole time. They have all been replaced at some time or another with one of those runners. I think you can see what it looks like on my photobucket page...

Thanks snibb. What's the link to your photobucket? I'd like to take a look at them.

Homer..Im pretty sure its in there somewhere..take a look..

http://s292.photobucket.com/albums/mm14/snobblet/

Wow, those are huge snibb! Mine never get that big... They don't get much attention, so that might be the problem.

I'm definitely trying that out this year.

We planted strawberry plants 4 per square earlier this year and plan on keeping the runners trimmed back. They're doing pretty good so far, but aren't nearly as nice and big as snibb's.

btw Your strawberries look great, snibb, so I'm gonna pick your brain. :) How do you keep them fed over the years? Surely the nutrients in the compost are tapped out eventually. Do you side dress them with new compost or fertilizer?

Does the chicken wire do a sufficient job of keeping the critters out? We've had a problem with something eating our strawberries and need to cover them.

Did you put straw in with your berries? We ended up doing that because the berries that touched the Mel's mix got all mushy and gross. Unfortunately we're having a problem with weeds now. I've also got quite a few leaves that have turned red. Any idea what might be causing that?

Thanks,

Rachel

Here is a link that might be useful: LookMaNoWeeds