What do I do with strawberry plants?

[CADS]

Hi

I was wondering what to do with my 'early' strawberry plants that have finished fruiting. I have 12 in a terracotta planter.

Thanks
CADS

[Alison]

I cut the old leaves off back to the crown and let the new ones grow nice and healthy. If you don't want any new plants then make sure you keep on top of the suckers, and even if you do, I don't like to take more than one from each plant.

[mellonmellow]

Just wondering: how did you achieve early strawberry plants?

[leona]

there are early, mid and late season varieties as well as perpetual fruiting. one early i highly recommend is 'honeyeye'. i have grown it for the last couple of years and it really is delicious

[rustylady]

Trim off the dead or dying growth and look after the rest. Strawberry plants will produce good fruit for three years before starting to decline. As they're in containers, you may need to top-dress with extra compost, and possibly give liquid feed next year, but my second year plants in smallish jardiniere style pots are now producing luscious fruit.

[TPeers]

Mellonmellow - another way to produce an early crop, especially if plants are container grown, is to bring them into the greenhouse in about March, so after they have had some of the cold weather - which is important, as they seem to need the frost to encorage flower bud development - and force the plants in the comparative warmth inside. This can, in a good year bring the crop forward as much as a month but two weeks is more normal. You do need to open the house to allow insects in to polinate while the plants are in flower, or do the job yourself with a paint brush.

I understand that chilling the plants, while maintaining light levels, in Feb through to the end of March or even April, is a practice used to extend the season at the other end by delaying the formation of fruit but I don't think it is a feasable home method!

Terry