Kia ora fellow kiwis
Does anyone know where I can get organic strawberry plants from please. I have a vision of a bed of say 1m x 2m. How many plants would I need - how far apart, what area is best to plant them morning sun etc and when??
A real novice but some good soil ...
Many thanks to sstorch and others that may reply to this.
Ka kite
Diana
Diana, can't help you with the organic strawberry plants, but I'd
approach an organic strawberry grower or friend. You're only
looking at say a dozen plants for the area you envision. This is
how I got interested in strawberries. I bought 20 runners from an
organic PYO farmer.
But we have just been told here in Australia that the regulation
requiring all seed and plant material grown on certified farms must be
organically raised, has been postponed from 1 Dec 2003 to 2006.
This because the Europeans, whose standards we in Australia have to
meet because of our markets, cannot meet that deadline there
either.
This is a particular issue in Australia for growers of perenniel
plants like strawberries and asparagus etc. There are only about
6 sources for strawberry runners here (the growers operate through a
large co-op mainly).
Because of the Plant Breeders Rights, we can't grow our own
runners and can't buy organic runners anywhere in any quantity.
The conventional runner growers sterilise the soil with methyl bromide
to get rid of, well, everything!, to guarantee them virus free. There
seems to be no organic alternatives as yet, from runner growers I have
spoken with, and the market for organic runners is so small.
Also, if any runner growers had a solution right now - it would take
them 3 years to be fully certified by the time this regulation comes
in anyway!
What happens in the US, where i imagine organic crowns and
runners are already available?
--
Graeme Gerrard
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