Strawberry Leaves!!!
Gary Burgess
Posts: 16
in Fruit & veg
I treated my strawberries to a feed of farmyard manure in January and subsequently the plants have gone wild and the rows have turned into a dense clump! Do I need to cut back the foliage to expose the fruit to the sun or will the fruit ripen ok.
The fruit on the edge is the best it’s ever been!
The fruit on the edge is the best it’s ever been!
0
Posts
The fruits should still ripen, but you could take off one or two leaves to expose the fruit on each plant.
You'll probably need to thin out the plants after fruiting, and create another bed for them!
You'd probably find half that would easily fill the space. They get quite big, as you've found
Enjoy them anyway - you'll still get plenty of fruit, but you may also get some pests invading as it's hard to keep good airflow round the plants when they're tightly packed. If they get very congested, it would be worth taking a few out and putting them in pots if you don't have any other space.
I am actually quite impressed with your growth but considering it is that much growth from only 12 plants maybe it is focussing a bit too much on vegetation than fruit production. Even if that is the case you should get a bumper crop next year from all the growth put out this year. Watch out the new runners don't start rooting in that bed - it is a bit too crowded already. I would even remove 3 plants end of this season. Repot them elsewhere.