My Strawberries

[Rapscallion]

Hi all,

I made a raised bed last year and potted up some strawberries, a mix of early mid and late season.

They have looked to have grown well this summer, but the crop was over be the beginning of July - is this normal?

The bed also now looks overgrown with strawberries, how best to thin? Can i move some to another bed? For the runners - can i cut those and move to another bed?

Also, for wintering i am told i need to remove old leaves - does this mean all the leaves?

A picture of the bed: -

[nickdub]

With over-wintering you can remove dead or diseased leaves, but yours look healthy so I would not bother.
New plants which started as runners this year need to have good roots before you move them to another spot - easiest to lift one or two with a trowel and see if the roots are good enough yet - say about 4 or 5 inches long, before you decide.

The life span of a cropping strawberry plant is not long, say 3 years - so if you have the space for 3 beds you can just rotate around clearing one bed and planting it up with new runners every Autumn.

I'd guess your plants cropped early this year and finished early because of the very warm spring we had.

Strawberries like cool roots with lots of water and a rich soil to grow in - if you know someone local who keeps horses or cows, then a few wheelbarrows of manure per bed each year would be just the job.