Strawberries

I know its not a vegetable but I can but try :-)

I recently bought 6 strawberry plants (which have multiplied to 19 within a couple of months), anyway my question is, do I need to trim them down for the winter? I'm based in the UK, I think I'm in gardening zone 8 but (according to one site and not the other) on the border with zone 9 as well.

Thanks :-)

The commerical guys her in 8b run the mower over theirs for winter. I just use the weed eater and hold it kind of high. This encourages more growth in the spring and makes evern more berries.

So I need to cut them down, but in your personal opinion don't cut them very much, i.e. just cut the leaves off and leave about half the stems?

Sorry to be so dim lol. I have seen them in garden centres around where I live, one centre had them all cut to about soil level with one leaf left on (I think it was just to show that they weren't dead), another centre had them cut to soil level and another two centres had them left with full leaves - It's my first attempt with strawberries so I am quite clueless.

Right or wrong thats what I did half inch or longer not many leafes left. When you think how the new roots look when you buy them they are just roots not much leafs.

Thanks. I bought then with leaves on a few months ago. I have been looking on different sites for advice on what to do, most sites don't actually say. I was after advice from people who had successfully cut back and regrown strawberries and you have. Thanks.

The longer they are out of cold storage the more leaf actievty.Yours were probably allready in dirt. I got mine from a place that sells thousands and thousands of plants to the farmers.I had to arrange for them to remove them from the freezer.It was amazing how quick they started growing.

Good luck

Trim half and leave half, then compare in the spring. I have never trimmed mine and they are fine. Maybe I'll try trimming this year to see what happens. (They kind of grow like weeds for me)

My dad used to have 2 long rows of strawberries. In the fall, after they had sent out their runners which then rooted themselves, he would cultivate out the original plants and leave the runners to grow the next spring's berries. Then repeat the process in the fall. That way he always had fresh plants. He was in zone 6.

Strawberries need to be grown in a 3 year cycle, the best runners will be from one year plants, they rarely make good, if any, runners after. I keep 2 short rows of 1st, 2nd and 3rd year plants (except I didn't get around to transplanting this year!). Once 3 years of fruiting are up then remove them, they become congested with too many crowns and fruiting will be poor so don't be tempted to leave them, that is hard to do when they have so much fruit in their third year! I have often dug them as soon as fruiting has finished and put some early variety carrots such as Nantes in their place. Where I am that can be done up until mid July and provides young carrots for autumn, unless it's a bad year for carrot fly.

Runners will start to grow in late summer and root where happy, they will need moist soil to do that. You can either transplant them later in autumn or spring, I usually do it in late April when they start to grow well again and often start making flowers by then but that doesn't hurt them. I try to move them with soil intact with the roots if possible. Moving them when they are in active growth will help them establish better but don't leave it too late.

No need at all to cut off the leaves, that is probably done by commercial growers to make things easier, as well as remove snails or other pests as they sometimes like to live around the plants and snack on the fruits. You will find some leaves die back over winter but will retain some leaves, when cleaning up in spring the old leaves will pull off easily. The food will go back into the plant from the old leaves as they die back to help feed it. Garden centres like their plants to look fresh and neat so any old leaves will be taken off.

When transplanting young runners early in the season they often only have about one leaf on, or can have that in a cold spring (which we have a lot of now!), but once it starts to warm up they race away. Best to select only the strongest runners. I put my home made compost under the plants when planting out with a bit of soil on top. They should be planted with the crown above soil level.

If you happen to be growing them in pots then you might need to put some extra pots next to them and try pinning the runners once they start to make plantlets. In the ground enough room should be left to allow for their 3 years of growth, around 18" between rows and 12" between plants is sufficient.

I’ve got them growing in a big planter, well two big planters at the moment, and I’m going to get another 2 next year for the new ones. I have got little pots around the outside for the runners. I’ve still got 2 babies attached at the moment, although I don’t think they are doing so well. I’ll give them a cut and if they survive they survive and if they don’t it doesn’t matter. I did that with another baby which looked very unhappy, I cut it early and it thrived.