How to protect strawberries during Autumn/Winter?

Shoxt3r

Hi there,

So I believe I've picked my last strawberry for the season now (had a pretty good crop for their first year and my first time growing them too) and I was wondering how I go about protecting the plants over the Autumn/Winter months? I've been told that the plants I bought can be kept for approximately 3 years before they stop producing (apologies I forget the variety we bought).

I have them growing in a raised bed and have fitted a cloche stand which I can easily put together again and zip up - but is this the best cover? I've had cloches before and with the harsh winters the covering has often split with the cold, exposing the plants inside.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated and feel free to let me know if you have questions. Picture of the current setup is attached.

Thanks in advance!

Andrew

Dovefromabove

No need to protect them ... they're perfectly hardy ... rake off the straw, it's not needed now and is providing perfect slug habitat.  They'll die down and start to regrow in the spring when the weather warms up.  If you want to hurry them along in the spring, that's the time to put the cloches on. 
  

purplerallim

Thanks for that @Dovefromabove I was wondering too as mine are outside at the moment. Didn't know if the roots might suffer if it got frosty in a raised bed.

Dovefromabove

Strawberry plants go dormant in the winter so they'll be fine.   

The time they might be damaged by frost is if we get a warm spell which wakes them up in early spring followed by some hard frosts ... that's the time to pop a cloche over or cover them with lots of loose straw.  

purplerallim

😀

Glockenblume

I never cover my strawberries in winter; they are very hardy! Where I live, in the alps, temperatures can go down to minus 20 and lower and the ground freezes. Most years the ground is covered with at least half a metre of snow for 4 + months. In the spring they are always ok and burst into life!

Fairygirl

I often have little runners in tiny pots, and they can regularly look dead over winter. First sign of milder weather and they spring into life. While snow can insulate, it's the wet cold that's more of an issue for lots of plants, or freezing after wet. Strawbs are easy though. Tough as old boots 
Lovely place to live Glockenblume. Challenging for many plants - and people! Always good to hear news from people in other locations than the UK. What sort of garden/plants do you have?

Shoxt3r

Hi all,

Thanks very much for the replies - had no idea they lay dormant, good to know!
Will keep an eye on how the weather is doing - hopefully we get a clean cut of Winter/Spring this year eh? We shall see.

Wow that really settles my mind then Glockenblume that even weather like that doesn't affect them. Likewise with Fairygirl it would be interesting to know what else you can grow in that climate.

ZeroZero1

Strawberries don't stop cropping after 3 years. The only crop less. I have beds that have been in 7 years and with tlc the crop at about 75% of their peak

Hostafan1

I've heard they shouldn't be replanted in the same ground. Has anyone any personal experience of this?

Skandi

My strawberries happily survived two months of the ground being frozen over a foot down. They can get lifted by frost but it doesn't really seem to bother them.

Hosta, no no experience of anything going wrong. we've had strawberries growing semi wild in areas for over 20 years, the yield drops off but they were not given any fertiliser either.