Topic: Newly planted Strawberries - caring question

[newspud9]

Always somewhat behind the curve, I just planted 24 bare rooted Mara des Bois strawberry plants.  I saw Monty do it on TV but it was about a month ago. The weather has been pretty mild of late down south so I thought why not give it a go.  Wanted to ask if they need any kind of protection (fleece) or netting in case the local deer took a fancy.
Thanks for all the advice.

[squeezyjohn]

I planted mine later than this last year ... and they ran rampant giving me strawberries from June to November!

Be careful with Mara des Bois ... pick them almost every day because they go soft and mushy on the plant almost the minute they reach full ripeness, and be prepared to protect from ants and slugs ... that's the price you pay for what is proabably the most stunningly flavoured strawberry I've ever had!

[Digeroo]

Strawberries are very hardy.  We do have problems with deer.  So if they are a problem you may need to net them. 

The deer tend to chew ours but then move away so the plants seem to recover and it does not seem to do them any harm.   

[squeezyjohn]

I get the same thing with deer in the winter.  However Monty Don always says you should remove all of last years leaves and dispose of them anyway so I let the deer do that job for me and then net them only at the beginning of Spring.

[ACE]

I was only looking at my scruffy strawberry patch yesterday. I thought the leaves died back into the plant, but if MD  reckons it best to remove them, I might as well tidy it up. I top dressed with some well rotted back at the end of summer so looking forward to a good crop next year.

[laurieuk]

We always used to use plenty of straw while the strawberries were fruiting then allow it to dry and set light to it , so that it burnt all the old foliage off and destroyed any mould spores or such at the same time.

[squeezyjohn]

I think that would be a great solution for a single cropping type of strawberry ... and yes the principle behind the leaf removal is simply to get rid of any pathogens which might have built up and allow the crown to get the early light in the spring.  However that wouldn't work with Mara des Bois which fruited right in to November - by which time any straw would never have lit!

[ACE]

I went over my bed with the shears, then raked it clean and gave the soil a bit of a tickle with a small prong. What I did notice was a lot of nice new leaves in the heart of each plant. I hope I have not taken away their protection.