Many commercial growers start with new plants each year. Of course when they order them in, those 'new plants' are simply rooted runners off other old plants. LOL. When I am working my fruit and bramble patches, and the runners start shooting out into the walkways between the rows, I usually just lift the runner up before it roots and lay it down into an empty space in the row and let it root where I want it. Yes, there is no reason if you don't encounter diseases to let the runners root up and then transplant them into new areas and likewise when the original plants get tired and need rejuvenating to use runners off the progeny to repopulate the original plot. Any plant, whether a food crop or ornamental with a crowning habit throws it's newest growth outward and eventually dies out at the crown.

Pjames: Next time you plant strawberries, write down the type and variety, since it might make quite a difference. It would be very helpful to know, for example, if your poorly performing berries were Junebearers or everbearers. Everbearers tend to bear more sparsely, but over a longer season, though no strawberry will produce well in the heat of midsummer. A patch of Junebearing strawberries should still be bearing well in the 2nd and even 3rd season, though when you get to years 4 and 5 you may want to move the patch just for disease issues if nothing else. You don't tell us anything about whether your plants runnered, and how you handled that, or if the patch became overgrown with weeds or crowded with runners. These are things that can dramatically lower production. Removal of the older plants in favor of new runners and keeping the plants thinned to about 8 inches apart is what keeps a patch growing and producing well. I think someguyinmaine's system sounds pretty neat, though it does require some work and attention. That's usually what it takes to grow good strawberries. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Just an update near the end of the season... My row of june-bearers (Quinalt, I think) only had 5 big-box crowns survive. I may have been able to save a few more, but this bed was part of our lawn in March, so I got behind on keeping up with the weeds in a 30" x 25' row for five measly plants. (They have since taken off with a little more attention and the daughters have almost filled in the entire area behind the espalier row, but just a few blooms and no berries that I've found.) As for the everbearers: the Loran and Tristan did very well in my raised beds as a border on the short sides of each bed and, despite a few small berries from dry spells, produced a few handfuls of berries a day in peak season. That is, if I could keep the birds and ground squirrels from sampling the ripe berries (The chickens were quick to scout the discarded berries behind the garden). The plants in-ground in our "lovely" clay soil didn't take off nearly as fast, but did end up producing a bit later. I ended up replacing all of the crowns in-ground with Loran and Tristan plants, and although the slugs snuck up on me last month after a week of torrential rains, we've had a handful of berries every day or so for the last few weeks. I should note that Tristan and Loran varieties are nearly runnerless and were well-behaved even in the raised beds. That may make renewal of the everbearing bed a little more challenging! I'll have to take a pic of the comparison between the everbearing row and the (5) June-bearing plants. I'm sure that letting the everbearers produce gave them a slower start, but the difference is comical! I have to say, I love the dark pink flowers on Tristan, but the berries are slender and pointed...I got much plumper and slightly tastier berries from Loran. Tristan also seemed to bear on longer stems and berries would often rot from touching the soil before ripening--I think they would be ideal for a hanging container, though. I do have some Captan for the fruit trees, but never did spray on a regular schedule this spring. They got some neem oil and then a couple spot applications of pesticide/fungicide when the japanese beetles started munching. The strawberries maybe got some overspray, but no direct application aside from a little Grass-B-Gon (Fusilade) on the most stubborn crabgrass. We also built a garden shed in the backyard in early summer and I'm still building decks and finishing the landscaping now that the garden has slowed down and the weather has cooled...I had a busy summer!

My strawberries do not dieback. Well some did, but I think they are problem plants. Probably have a leaf fungus. Slugs are easy, just use the organic slug pesticide. Like Sluggo. Raspberries grow in just about anything, Not sure why they would taste different? The only thing I can think of is stink bugs. Strawberries like a rich soil, mine perform better in the better soils. I have one patch which really is used as a ground cover. the soil is poor, and the berries tend to be small and dry. So I guess they would taste better if better soil is used. Thinking about it, some of my raspberries that suffered some winter damage produced berries that were not great. They were small and bitter. But if the cane produced normal sized berries they tasted fine. I have 2 raspberry patches one is in a raised bed with premium soil, the other is in ground with a clay soil that has been amended every year for three years. Still it is rather poor. I cannot discern any difference in taste between the beds.