Topic: Strawberries - putting them to bed for winter

[carosanto]

I need a little bit of help here please.  My strawberry bed was much neglected during our wonderful summer, due to family commitments.  It didn't produce much due to lack of water, and runnered all over the place, in addition to which the weeds moved in - I had a veritable plantation of plantains there!

So finally, in this great late autumn weather I've managed to tidy it all up, pot up runners, reclaim the edges and thoroughly weed.  Now I intend to mulch the whole lot.

What I'd like to know, before I mulch - is it too late to trim back all my foliage?  I know most of it will die off anyway over winter, but it seems cruel to denude the crowns of their protection at the moment.  However, before I do mulch it would be sensible to get some good advice on this.  Can any help me?  To trim or not to trim, given the lateness of the season?  Thanks for any help.

Caro

[gavinjconway]

I'm in the same position.... didn't have time to trim and tidy them up... I'm going to leave till the Spring then tidy up and feed..  Whether it's right or not I don't know... we'll find out later when others see the thread..

[Floyds]

Trim.

[small]

I've just bought new plants from Ken Muir, and with them came a smashing little booklet on strawberry cultivation.  They suggest that old leaves should be cut off without cutting into the crowns, (though they also say this should be done directly after cropping, oops) and the new set of leaves left because they manufacture food material for flower initiation. They say to go over the bed again in March to remove any dead leaves. Hope that helps.......

[Obelixx]

We have very cold winters so I leave all the old foliage on to protect the corwns.  Come spring they all look very dead and sorry for themselves but I go through them with a rake and my hands and take off the dead stuff.   They then grow new foliage and produce a good crop.  This year I've potted up lots of runners to refresh the stock in  anew bed but won't clear the old plants till spring when I've seen what has survived.