cutting back strawbs

[leona]

i have mostly mid season strawbs and i planted them too close together last year. the only problem really is that the foliage blocks out a lot of light and is affecting the strawbs in the middle as they arent repening as quickly. what i wandered was, would it be ok to trim them back a little bit now? also, i bought an early strawb plant yesterday which has long finished fruiting but should i cut it back now as i would for the winter or leave it for now?

[leona]

oh well. ive done it now anyway

[Squirrel]

Oh dear, that sounded like a lonely little voice in the middle of nowhere! Havn't a clue about cutting back strawbs but would like to know the answer too! I need to move all of my strawbs and was wondering when would be the best time to do so.

[leona]

winter i would guess? i think im going to bin the plants i bought last year. i cant remember which variety they are but even tho ive had loads of fruit, its not that great. if i wanted tasteless strawbs id go to tesco quite frankly. although, having said that, there is one supermarket, cant remember which, that sells 'aromatic' strawbs and they are nice!

[Lesley Jay]

You wait until strawberries have finished fruiting. Then I dig up all the runners that I want and plant them in a bed ready for next year. Then if I want to move any of the main strawberry plants to a new bed I would do that next. Then finally I go around and cut down all the foliage. (Not right down to the ground though!) I hope I have made sense!

Leona I can send you some strawberry runners later if you like. I don't know what the variety is but boy they taste fabulous!

[Squirrel]

Thanks for that - I think I have had my strawberries for about three years now, so I suppose I should really throw them out and start again! They have been in various pots around the place, have nearly died from lack of water, been frozen in winter and still have produced fruit!

[leona]

thanks for that. i know to cut them back when they have finished but the prob is that they are too close together and i dont think enough light gets into the middle so i wanted to cut them back a little bit now. i had the same thring with sprouting broc last year and i had to keep trimming it as it was too close together.
runners would be lovely. ive been collecting runners from mine. not the ones i dont like obviously but i bought 3 diff varieties to try and they have been throwing runners everywhere. ive got quite a few wild strawb runners going if you want a swap?

[Lesley Jay]

Leona you could really do with replanting your strawberry bed and giving the plants some more room. Mine are planted about 18 inches apart and they produce huge plants. As for the runners I have loads of strawberry plants - and I really do mean loads - so you are more than welcome to some runners when they are nice and big. But I will not need any in return because I have so many! Thanks though!

[leona]

as i grow everything in my garden, i am quite limited on space and my strawb patch cant really expand. i have thought of moving it but i dont really have anywhere else. ive got 4 plants in pots that i bought recently and they will be staying in pots for now. there is a trowels length between the plants each way at the moment.

[SueA]

Leona , you could try putting some in hanging baskets or a strawberry tower pot as well. You should be O.K. cutting some of the leaves back now as they are probably getting towards the end of cropping & the leaves on some of mine looked a bit tired & sun- scorched so I chopped some off!

[Shortie]

There's always grow bags (if you have the space) and if there really are loads and loads, buy/make one of those towers to put multiple grow bags on...?

[Slug]

Leona,

I have the same problem as you do - I have a small veg patch in my garden and I squish as much in it as I possibly can! I've got 2 yr old strawberries in my garden which are extremely healthy, but the leaves are now overshadowing the strawberries.

I think I'm going to cut a few of the big leaves back (I'm sure they won't miss a few leaves!) and hope to get some more sunshine to the berries.

Slug