In my minimal experience, all kinds of stuff happens to strawberry leaves. I consider those normal, and the new growth looks good. Ground looks a little dry though. New plantings should be kept watered. You should see my strawberry leaves! I'd just leave those alone or you can remove them if it bothers you. Maybe spray with a fungicide. I've never sprayed my small 3 year old patch. I just went through mine and removed the old foliage.

Sorry, can't help with the blueberry. My onions and strawberries love one another. They happily grow in the same bed. I never let young strawberry plants create too many runners. I pinch out all but one or two. I want them to direct all their energy into establishing themselves the first year. In their second year i get heavier crops and at tge end of the season I let each plant create 1 or 2 new plants. In thier third year I allow the plant to produce as many offspring as possible and then I get rid of the original plant at the end of the season. 3 -4 years is a good life for most strawberry plants. I do have one strawberry plant that's been around for 5 years or so. I got it at Aldi and its a strange powerhouse of a strawberry plant. As long as it crops heavily I will leave it be. Sooooo, maybe your strawberries will be like my mine and produce over the years. I hope that helps. M

I don’t believe there is an easy answer to “what is the best” plant or hydroponic system. You can grow practically any plant anywhere in hydro in any system. I think the main questions in response are: Are you growing indoor or outdoor? How much space are you going to have (vertical towers or horizontal)? Vertical Example: http://www.tomorrowsgarden.net/ckfinder/userfiles/images/480x640xrain,P20towers.jpg.pagespeed.ic.VUbdDM95uI.jpg Horizontal Example: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pvgV439m4BU/UZL4Go09z7I/AAAAAAAAAo4/xGKcKkx3fNY/s1600/IMG_3980.JPG Then if you are growing outdoors I would look at your zones and go from there. Let me know and I can voice concerns or help once the top two questions are answered. 73dave has the most common setup that I have seen for strawberries. I use something very similar but I don’t use grow median, I just have high density foam disks that hold the strawberries in place and allow the roots to dangle into the water. Now if you go with a median it is important to remember how strawberry roots grow. They will tend to form a root ball around the median. If grow median less they will not ball and instead grow very long with many smaller shoots. I would recommend, and this depends on your setup, going with hydroton (clay pebbles) or growstone hydroponic substrate (relatively new to the market). The reason I am siding with those is because you normally already buy rooted strawberries and putting a rooted plant into rockwool is a pain in the butt. The coco will hold to much moisture, in my opinion, in a system like 73dave has setup and not allow proper aeration of the roots to occur. Perlite is small and can fall through the cracks of the net pot depending on size, and holds more moisture than you need in my opinion. I also didn’t bring up using a substrate like lava rock because it tends to be too large and again a pain to deal with. I would recommend going with a 3” net pot to put the plants into. It gives them extra space if they start to develop off shoots; however, it also depends on how long you are planning to keep them. If this is a one time, only summer grow the 2” net pots would work. If this grow will be indoors and over several years (I believe some strawberries can live up to five years) then the 3” is a must to allow the plant to expand correctly. If you go with a smaller net pot, it can be a pain to upgrade at a later time. Hope this helps! Keep us posted with your setup as you go. As a side note, some manufactures already have premaid towers, here is an example: http://theaquaponicsource.com/shop/aquavertica-towers/aquavertica-tower-5-ft/ They aren’t that expensive, so give a gander at those before you make your own setup.

Well, you remember I took my extra veggie starts (as well as some strawberry plants from the nursery) to market starting June 1, but didn't sell that many. It was too late in what ended up being an early season - people usually plant around Mem Day here, and it was extra warm (after the late April freezes) so a lot of gardens got planted early - even the people who started too early, in April, had replaced their plants by the time market started. Hanging baskets might work though - esp. if they'll bear that year.