June Bearing have a lifespan of about seven years, however after 3 years production starts to diminish and by year six berries are pretty much non-existent. I renovate June bearing every three years. To renovate a plant, cut off the leaves and tops just above the crown. Don’t cut into the crown or the plant will die. I can then get another two good years of full production from the plant. After the second year, I replace the plants with new ones propagated from runners.

Ever Bearing have a life of about 3-4 years. After the second year, I renovate the plants which will give me an additional year. I have 18" wide wide rows with 4 plants across, or 4 rows of plants approximately 6" apart. Every other year I will plant propagated runners in the inside 2 rows, and renovate the outside 2 rows. Then after 2 years, I replace the outside rows and renovate the inside rows, etc.

Day Neutral have a 2-year life, since they produce non-stop. I use the alternating row technique above each year, so the plants are always replaced after two years production.

Barrels will work fine. And mounding will give you more surface area, meaning more room for more plants. I pack my plants tight, meaning 5-6 inches apart. I have a friend that has a hydroponic berry farm, and he plants at 4" spacing in pots mounted to poles. Actually how close you plant depends if you are feeding the plants regularly (weekly) with a good high sulfur plant food. I use Jack’s Classic Acid Special 17-6-6. The reason that nurseries recommend 16"-18" between plants is that you need room to root the runners. I control runner propagation and therefore can control spacing. Trust me when I tell you your production won’t suffer from plants being crowded, assuming you feed them properly. Also make sure you get a good handle on the Ph.
Happy Growing.

Great question…pilfering some to add to my strawberry notes page. Then, off to find some Jack’s Classic online – no one around here has the stuff.

Thanks, I picked up the barrels, some sand and top soil yesterday but I haven’t done anything yet because I can’t find the 90% fast acting sulfur you mention. I have some other places I can try today.

Yes, I was going to do some research on adding a little bit of sulfur to the water every time I water because I had read somewhere that the water will tend toward the soil pHs of an area. I did have a pH meter in my tool shed, so I pulled that out and did a reading on the water and soil. My water is at 7.2 and the garden soil the berries are in right now is actually at 6.8. (It’s a raised bed that I brought topsoil in for.) My most unammended flower bed is reading 7.6. This is surprising because when we first moved here I did a test and it was 8.2. I can only guess this is because we had just modified the landscaping and stirred up a lot of the basement clay on the property. Perhaps that was much higher and it’s starting to settle back down.

I’ll find the sulfur I need and then set up the barrels with a custom soil mix and take a measurement and go from there. I’ll let you know when I get there if I have anymore questions or tell you how it goes.

By the way, I’ve been trying to get some more information on strawberry pH requirements and most of the sites were recommending 5.5-6.5. It sounds like you’ve done a lot of research on this and I’m just curious where you got your information from. I’m only asking because I wanted to modify the garden bed a little if needed for the veggies there but I’m loathe to trust the information I’m finding if they’re so off on Strawberries.

I was right, you are berry nutty about strawberries! Does Cornell University post anything for the general public on their pH recommendations for other garden fruits and veggies? Similar to your finding for the strawberries. I’m pretty sure I need to at least try to get my garden pH down from 6.8 to 6.5. But I’m wondering if even a little lower wouldn’t be better, maybe 6.0 – 6.3.

Cornell is a big place, so I’m not sure who published this. I do know that the Cornell Greenhouse maintains a Ph of 5.0 for their strawberries. I also know that at 7.0, you will have minimum production. I can only tell you what works best for me from my experience. I really try to avoid giving people advice based on web articles, unless I’ve actually tried it. I’ve found that the web is full of bad and conflicting information.

BTW, ….You’re links are broken. I can’t get a good link using the button. I just put the word in quotes, then a colon, followed by the address (no spaces after the second quotation mark.
Vegetables
Fruit

Relative to Ph for your garden, 6.0 to 7.0 is fine for most vegetables. I’ve got notebooks full of Ph tests on all kinds of things dating back twenty years (both mine and from Cornell Ag school). One of these days I’ll get around to summarize it and post it.

I’m back. I’ve been out running around and messing with this project off and on for the past few days, not getting any place fast. I decided to buy a bottle of pH test solution to double check my cheap tester. The tester was say 6.8, the solution looked like a little over 6ish maybe? So I dumped most of my new 2lb bottle of sulfur into the barrel and mixed it into the top 3" and wet it all down and retested. Oye… oops. I think I’m at a solid 4 now. lol

Oh well, I’m going to let the cauldron sit and stew over night and check again tomorrow. If it really is 4, then that’s probably a good thing because I still need to put another 2" of soil in the container and that would probably be about right.

Interesting fact, the pH solution fruit/vegie chart has strawberries listed at 5 as optimal. It also had measurements for most of my other vegies that are much lower than what I’ve been reading online. So that was a good find.

pH preferences of common flowers, grasses and food crops

Flowers, Trees & Shrubs:
Azalea 4 ½ – 5 ½
African Violet 6 – 7
Ageratum 6 – 7
Alyssum 6 – 7
Anemone 6 – 7 ½
Arborvitae 6 – 7
Aster 5 – 6
Amaryllis 5 – 6
Alder 6 – 7
Andromeda 5 – 6
Ash 6 – 7
Begonia 5 ½ – 6 ½
Butterfly Bush 6 – 6 ½
Bottlebrush 6 – 7 ½
Birch 4 ½ – 6
Bayberry 4 ½ – 6
Beech 6 – 7
Boxwood 6 – 7
Batchelor Button 6 ½ – 7 ½
Cedar 5 – 7
Cypress 5 – 6
Cottoneaster 6 – 7
Cottonwood 6 – 7 ½
Chestnut 5 – 6 ½
Carnation 6 – 7 ½
Caladium 5 ½ – 6 ½
Canna 6 – 7 ½
Croton 5 – 7
Chrysanthemum 5 ½ – 6 ½
China aster 5 – 7
Dogwood 6 – 7
Daffodil 6 – 8
Dahlia 6 – 7
Delphinium 6 – 7 ½
Deutzia 6 – 7
Daphne 5 ½ – 6 ½
Elm 6 – 7
Euonymus 6 – 7
Eucalyptus 6 ½ – 7 ½
Forsythia 5 ½ – 6 ½
Fir 5 ½ – 7
Fern 5 – 6
Fuchsia 5 ½ – 6 ½
Gardenia 5 – 6
Gladiolus 5 ½ – 6 ½
Geranium 6 – 7 ½
Hibiscus 5 – 6 1/2
Holly 5 – 6
Hydrangea (Blue) 4 ½ – 5 ½
Hydrangea (Pink) 6 ½ – 7 ½
Hawthorn 6 – 7 ½
Hyacinth 6 – 7
Hazel (Witch) 6 – 7
Hemlock 5 – 6
Honeysuckle 6 – 7
Horsechestnut 6 – 7
Iris 6 – 6 ½
Ilex 5 – 6
Ivy 6 – 7
Juniper 5 – 6
Lantana 5 ½ – 6 ½
Lily 5 – 6
Larch 6 – 7
Laurel 5 – 6
Locust 6 – 7
Lilac 6 – 7
Linden 6 – 7
Lily of the Valley 5 – 6
Magnolia 5 – 6
Marigold 5 ½ – 7
Maple 6 ½ – 7 ½
Mulberry 6 – 7
Narcissus 6 – 6 ½
Oak 5 – 6
Orchid 4 ½ – 6
Palm 5 ½ – 7
Pansy 5 – 6 ½
Peony 6 – 7 ½
Periwinkle 6 – 7 ½
Petunia 5 ½ – 7
Phlox 5 – 6
Pine 5 – 6
Plane Tree 6 – 7
Poinsetta 6 – 7
Poplar 6 – 7
Privet 6 – 7
Quince 6 – 7
Rose 5 ½ – 7
Rhododendron 4 ½ – 5 ½
Snapdragon 6 – 7
Spirea 6 – 7
Spruce 5 – 6
Sweetgum 6 – 7
Sycamore 6 – 7 ½
Tulip 6 – 6 ½
Tupelo 6 – 7
Tuliptree 6 – 7
Verbena 6 – 7 ½
Violet 6 – 7 ½
Viburnum 6 – 7
Walnut 6 – 7
Weigelia 6 – 7
Willow 5 – 7
Wisteria 6 – 7 ½
Yew 6 – 7
Yucca 6 – 7
Zinnia 5 ½ – 7

Grasses
Blue (Ky) 5 ½ – 7 ½
Bent 5 ½ – 6 ½
Bermuda 6 – 7
Buffalo 6 – 7 ½
Clover 5 ½ – 7
Fescue (red) 5 ½ – 6 ½
Fescue (tall) 6 ½ – 7 ½
Rye 5 ½ – 8
Rye (Perennial) 6 – 7
St. Augustine – 6 – 7 ½
Zoysea – 4 ½ – 7 ½

Fruit and Vegetables
Alfalfa 7 – 7 ½
Apple 5 ½ – 6 ½
Artichoke 6 – 6 ½
Asparagus 6 – 6 ½
Barley 7 – 7 ½
Bean 5 ½ – 6 ½
Beets 6 – 7
Blackberry 5 ½ – 6 ½
Broccoli 6 – 6 ½
Brussel Sprout 6 – 6 ½
Cabbage 6 – 6 ½
Cantaloupe 6 – 6 ½
Cherry 6 – 6 ½
Cauliflower 5 ½ – 6 ½
Chive 6 – 6 ½
Corn 5 ½ – 6 ½
Cranberry 4 ½ – 5
Carrot 5 ½ – 6 ½
Cucumber 6 – 6 ½
Celery 6 – 6 ½
Eggplant 5 ½ – 6 ½
Grapes 5 ½ – 6 ½
Grapefruit 6 – 6 ½
Lemon 7 –7 ½
Lettuce 6 – 6 ½
Lima Bean 6 – 6 ½
Mushroom 6 – 6 ½
Onion 5 ½ – 6 ½
Peas 6 – 6 ½
Parsley 5 ½ – 6 ½
Peach 6 – 61
Pear 6 – 6 ½
Pepper 5 ½ – 6 ½
Potato (Sweet) 6 – 6 ½
Potato 5 – 5 ½
Plum 6 – 6 ½
Pumpkin 5 ½ – 6 ½
Rhubarb 5 ½ – 6 ½
Rice 5 – 6 ½
Rye 5 ½ – 6 ½
Radish 6 – 6 ½
Soybean 6 – 6 ½
Spinach 6 – 7
Squash 5 ½ – 6 ½
Strawberry 5 – 5 ½
Turnip 5 ½ – 6 ½
Tomato 5 ½ – 6 ½
Watermelon 5 ½ – 6 ½
Wheat 6 – 7

I put a post up in the Plant Nutrition group, but to tell you the truth, I like your list better because it has your suggestions as well. I think I’ll delete the list and just put a link in there to your copy if you don’t mind?

Also, I finished up berry planter today and I’m pretty sure the pH color indicator is sitting around 5 give or take a little. I dug up about half of the berries from a healthy section of my garden, rinsed and checked all the roots and put them in. I’m pretty sure it’s the wrong time of year, but hey, I wasn’t going to get any berries anyway most likely.

OOPS …. I just got reading my earlier post “I harvested between 1300-1400 berries per 2200 plants last year” – Should have been 1300-1400 pounds. That’s a “little better” than 1/2 berry per plant – LOL

Sometimes my fingers go faster than my brain.