I grow day-neutral strawberries in 3.5 x 1.2 m beds and lose many plants to disease despite a 6 year rotation interval and starting all new beds with fresh disease-free plants. I suspect that the frequent rains are the main reason for disease issues and am thinking about covering the plants with polyethyline row covers. I haven't tried it before because I was afraid that bees would not pollinate the flowers effectively when the plants are covered. Since the plants bloom from spring to fall, they would be covered all of the time. Has anyone here successfully used poly tunnels on strawberries? Thanks.
Here, in Estonia, it is too hot in summer months for strawberries even under a floating row cover. Poly tunnel would be even hotter. I suspect that the temperature plays its role with your strawberries. Hot + moist = good recipe for fungal diseases.
I plan to use the tunnels primarily as protection from the rain. It's easy to uncover the plants during the dry summer months; I noticed long ago that they are not very productive during the warmest and driest part of the year.
