Grow Your Own Magazine

My strawberries have finished fruiting.What do I do next do I leave them or cut them back?

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The greatness comes not when things go always good for you,but the greatness comes when you are really tested,when you take,some knocks,some disappointments;because only if youv'e been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.

I would leave them to grow runners.

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Reap what you Sow

I can't believe yours have finished, mine are only just starting to ripen!

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http://www.weltaf.co.uk/
Why keep a dog when you can bark yourself !

You must have a very early variety if they have finished fruiting. Mine are in full swing but plenty to come yet - Cambridge Favourite, Elsanta, and Honeyoe. I don't usually cut my strawberries back until late autumn and after I have taken all the runners that I need and potted them up.

Just made my first batch of strawberry jam - yum!!

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Gardening is a matter of your enthusiasm holding up until your back gets used to it.

How do you 'cut back' strawberry plants? Once I've taken the runners off, I just leave the old plants to get on with it! When they get too big, I discard them.

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http://www.weltaf.co.uk/
Why keep a dog when you can bark yourself !

Commercial growers (and some private growers as well) used to straw their strawberries to keep the fruit clean and, at the end of the season, burned the straw in situ. This used to get rid of most of the unwanted pests. It may still happen.

I will be picking my first strawberries today for tea!
I have never thinned out my strawbs, should I be doing this? Do they stop producing strawberries after a certain age?

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http://clairescraftandgarden.blogspot.com/

My understanding is that you remove the flowers from the plant in the first year so you get no fruit, the second year the plant fruits at it's best and you discard the plant after the third year, by then your first year runners will be in their second year. I'm no authority on strawb growing so if I'm wrong I'm sure a more knowledgable grape will put us right

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http://www.weltaf.co.uk/
Why keep a dog when you can bark yourself !

We brought our first ever strawberry pot and it is just starting to flower. What should we be doing as there is no info card it???

Link to RHS help & Advice page on growing strawberries -

Royal Horticultural Society - Advice: Growing strawberries

See section on Aftercare.

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Gardening is a matter of your enthusiasm holding up until your back gets used to it.

Thanx for that, Gwyndy,good article.

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http://www.weltaf.co.uk/
Why keep a dog when you can bark yourself !