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Strawberries - now what ?

Anne17Anne17 Posts: 98
in Fruit & veg
my strawberries have been great this year, picked pounds and pounds, until the heavy rain finished them off
the bed is rather crowded and runners are everywhere. I know to pot up some for new plants next year, but what do I do with existing plants ! Thin them out ? Mulch them? Leave them alone !

Posts

  • FairygirlFairygirl west central ScotlandPosts: 46,981
    You don't really need to do anything with them, unless they're a bit tatty. If so, just remove any dead/damaged foliage, and you can give them a little liquid feed as a boost if you want, and a mulch of fresh compost. 
    If you feel they could do with a thinning out, certainly do that. If the plants are still productive, you can always give them away, or pot them up for another year's crop.  :)

    I could do with following my own advice - too many unproductive old plants!  ;)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....


  • BobFlannigonBobFlannigon Posts: 619
    I think I read somewhere that strawberries are most productive in their second and third years.  Anyway, the point is rather that, as you said, at some point you might want to pot some of those runners to replace the ageing plants- bearing in mind that the first year shouldn't yield anything.  Any runners you don't want to keep (which might be all of them), I'd just cut them off.

    As for thinning. it sounds like what you had was working well so there might not be a need to make any changes, just remove any runners that have already rooted.
  • Allotment BoyAllotment Boy North London Posts: 5,109
    The traditional advice is to take the shears to them and take all the tops off & clear them away, give them a good watering & a liquid feed.  A whole lot of new leaves will appear within a couple of weeks, you can control any subsequent runners more easily then. If they were not mulched before then you can do this as well. 
    AB Still learning

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