Hops and strawberry plants, bad mix?

[Pelican521]

Hi all, my 3rd (or 4th year, I can't remember) plants look like Swiss cheese now. I introduced some strawberry plants to the garden box where my hops are planted and wondering if anyone knew for sure if the strawberry plants would be attracting any critters that would like my hop leaves? I added the strawberry plants last year in the spring.

I had another thread where someone ID'd a alfalfa plant bug that I found on the plants. I found quite a few of them.

Anyway, wondering about the strawberries being a bad idea to have in with them.

Thanks in advance!

 

[NibblesMN]

Strawberries are slug magnets. They'll dig right through the berries then start eating leaves. They'll eat anything else nearby too, especially after a rain.

I use diatomaceous earth all around the strawberries. It's non toxic and it highly effective against any soft bodied critter like slugs or catepillars or cutworms.

 

[alane1]

One reason I could think of not to plant them together is that they're both affected by the same species of powdery mildew(podosphaera macularis). One could infect the other.

 

[thaymond]

All my strawberries are 15-20 feet from my hop garden for the chance the leaves become diseased with powdery or downy mildews. I was able to pull 2 lbs of berries this year from the garden, which is awesome. Once I can get the blueberries to produce, I'll have a good fruit garden going.

I read that Clover is supposed to be a good cover plant, not requiring tons of nutrients to grow, and returns nitrogen to the soil when you till it in. I have clover that I have naturally growing in mine, and I pull all the other weeds.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I read that Clover is supposed to be a good cover plant, not requiring tons of nutrients to grow, and returns nitrogen to the soil when you till it in. I have clover that I have naturally growing in mine, and I pull all the other weeds.

Not just when you till it in, it continually fixes nitrogen into the soil by nature of it's root system sybiosis with rhizobia bacteria.

 

[thaymond]

Not just when you till it in, it continually fixes nitrogen into the soil by nature of it's root system sybiosis with rhizobia bacteria.

Added bonus! It was your thread I was just reading on this... Link time!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=57951