gh@brunix.UUCP (Graeme Hirst) (07/08/83)
The reason you get rid of strawberry plants after two or three years is that
a strawberry plant is only productive for a few years, and is already a year
old when you buy it. Commercial starwberry farms use planting systems with
the plants arranged so that the runners make a row of new plants next to the
old ones. The old ones can then be plowed under, leaving the row of new ones.
It is, however, claimed that only the first plant of a runner is any good;
those further down the runner should be removed. (This applies recursively.)
Re diseases: You should buy from reputable dealers, to avoid strawberry virus.
If you have trouble with slugs in the spring, you might prefer to try
everbearing varieties of strawberry.
Nadia Talent and Graeme Hirst, Brown University Computer Science
{allegra, ihnp4, decvax}!brunix!gh gh.brown@udel-relay