Morgan Boldston

Saana Jalimauchi wrote:Thank you Morgan! Good point about the runners possibly cutting down production.

Now that you mentioned that, I started thinking about sacrificing the harvest of the first summer.. If I pinch out all the flowers, would the plants eventually start focusing on making runners? That way I could plant fewer crowns and let the plants spread on their own.


This project is still very much in the planning stage, so I'm not quite sure of the actual way of planting so that harvesting doesn't mean stepping on everything.. It will get clearer!


Edit. Oh and Morgan, a warm welcome to Permies!

I do not know if the plants would do that as I've never had experience with cutting the blooms. You could always plant different patches and experiment to see what works the best. Would be interesting to see what happens.
With my strawberries, and that of my neighbors, they usually focus on growing runners and very, very, few flowers in general unless there was runner pruning.
Thanks! Been reading for a while and decided to join.

I did a small strawberry hugel for a few years. Runners can cut down on fruit production because of the amount of energy they take to produce. Pruning them off the mother, then propagating them increased my fruit production. I also companion planted mine with creeping squashes, wild herbs, onions, and tomatoes. I hope your hugel goes well.

It depends on the quality of life you can give the fish. Fish need room to swim and hide, occasional medical care, proper temperatures, clean water (which can require testing or additives for stuff like ph), protection from predators, and species specific care. The livestock could also injure or make the fish sick, and the other way around. Fish are just like any other livestock. Putting them in the trough just to make extra use of the space may not be the best idea.  
If you wanted to utilize the space, perhaps use it as a livestock safe aquatic garden.