How to Prune Strawberries in the Spring, Strawberry Plant Care
Keeping your strawberries producing well year after year takes a little care. These tips show you how to prune strawberries and how to clean your strawberry beds for the new growing season.
We’ve had a strawberry patch for years now. And most years it has done really well. Producing lots of strawberries for us. Year after year.
About 5 years ago, I moved our strawberries to their very own raised bed. They liked their new home, but I noticed a few areas were bare after this past winter.
There were lots of dead leaves and the strawberries just weren’t taken off like I thought they should.
So I knew this year I needed to do a little strawberry patch maintenance.
Here’s what I did and what should be done for your own strawberries.
Steps to Clean and Prune Your Strawberries
In just a few steps, you can rejuvenate your strawberry bed. Helping your strawberry patch keep producing for you year after year.
Step 1 Removing Dead Leaves
After winter there can be a lot of dead leaves laying in the strawberry patch or bed.
Removing those dead leaves can clear out spores or other items on the leaves. That can spread disease to your strawberries or make them mold.
And removing the dead leaves, removes homes for slugs and other pest. So they can more easily be removed from the bed.
You can use your hands to pull out the dead strawberry leaves or a rake.
A rake will pull up more of the older plants that may be past their prime and leave in the newer, smaller plants.
My preferred method is to use my hands since my strawberries are in a raised bed. But either method will work.
If you have an older bed and want to remove the older strawberry plants that aren’t producing. Use a rake to clean the older plants and leaves out.
Step 2. How to Prune Strawberries
After you clear the leaves, you may see a few or quite a few runner vines. These are the vines that go from the adult plant to the new baby plants.
And before the growing season you need to prune your strawberry runners. This is best done in late February or early March.
During the growing season, I usually keep the new baby plants in the bed and then in the spring, I prune them from the adult plant.
If the new baby plant is rooted in, there is nothing more to do. But if it is loose, be sure to plant it.
Some people cut their runners each year and discard the runners. But I never do.
Keeping the runners helps to keep our strawberry patch full of plants that are younger and older and producing well.
Step 3 Feeding and Mulching Your Strawberry Plants
Once your strawberry bed has the leaves removed and the runners have been separated and replanted. It’s time to mulch the strawberry patch.
I like to use mushroom compost in my strawberry patch. I lay a layer of compost around the strawberries and as I water it helps to feed the plants.
It also helps to keep the strawberries moist by holding the water in the soil. And protecting them from drying out. Which is really important when they are setting the fruit.
Some gardeners will say don’t add any fertilizer until the fruit is coming on. Fertilizing too heavy before the fruit is coming on can encourage heavy leaf growth and not so much fruit.
I’ve found the addition of compost when cleaning the bed, can help feed the plants without causing them to get too leafy.
A Few Strawberry Plant Care Tips…
How to Prune Strawberry Runners
When pruning runners, be sure to cut the runner vine close to the plant. But not so close to damage the roots.
If the new baby strawberry plant has rooted in, there isn’t anything else to do. If it’s loose, plant it.
When is the Best Time to Prune Strawberries?
Before the growing season you need to prune your strawberry runners. This is best done in late February or early March.
When is the Best Time to Fertilize Strawberries?
The best time to fertilize your strawberries is after the harvest is done. Once your strawberries finish producing.
That is the perfect time to give them a boost with a dose of balanced fertilizer. Something close to 12-12-12 in composition.
Should I Cut the Leaves off Strawberry Plants?
You should remove any dead leaves but leave the green leaves on the plant. Only remove the dead leaves.
Those are 3 easy steps to help clean and prune your strawberries. And get them the nutrients and mulch they need to produce well for the upcoming growing season.
If you want to learn more about growing strawberries, this strawberry growing guide can help. It gives you everything you need to grow sweet strawberries in your own backyard garden.
Get the Companion Plants List
When you join the gardening email list, you'll not only get gardening tips sent to your inbox, you'll also get the companion plants list too.
Thanks for the advice, I’m having to remove strawbs because our gardens have had rodents burrowing under the raised beds. I will dig out, lay chicken wire and replant using new compost.
Pivvy, I hope your strawberries do great this year and the chicken wire keeps out those rodents for you.
We found we had to put hardware cloth, not chicken wire, in the bottom of my raised beds because voles and moles can fit thru chicken wire
Kathy, thanks for sharing your tip. I appreciate it.
Let’s hope so. I have bought some sweet collosus ones to try this year, along with Marshmello, looking forward to a sweet summer!
Thanks for a great article on pruning strawberries.Roy
You’re welcome!
Having problem with ants in my strawberries? I put a bunch of mint around and inside of plants. Going to remove and put them in silver trough. Do I need to put hole in it for drainage?
Susan, I would add a few holes for drainage so they don’t hold too much water. I hope that helps.
I had problems with ants in my strawberries too,so I looked it up,best thing to kill them,BAKING SODA. I use around the house to outside when I get them. Kills them dead. Good luck they are a pain.
What can I do to get rid of slugs apart from slug pellets
Sheryl, slugs can be tough. The best thing I’ve found other than slug pellets is to use a container dug down into the ground with beer added to it. You can also try sprinkling crushed egg shells around the plants to deter them too. I’ve had mixed success with that method. I hope that helps.
Hi
2021 was my first year growing strawberries. I planted them in a 30” tall strawberry planter. I left all the runners on and put them up against the family room wall in the garage for the winter and watered them from time to time. What do I do to get them going for my first year of getting fruit from them? I live in southeast Michigan.
Thanks Paul
Paul, when the weather permits in your area, I’d put them back outside where you had them growing last year. If you have the runners still hanging. I’d tuck them into the planter where you have room with the mother/original plants. If your strawberry plant leaves look dead, wait until you see new growth on the plants, then follow the steps here. I hope that helps.
I didn’t do a thing to my strawberries last fall, and am now worried about what to do this spring (NE WI). Do you suggest remove all dead leaves, as they all look dead? Or, wait until I see some new growth, then follow your steps above? I hope I didn’t ruin my 3 year old patch. Thanks!!
Amy, last year mine looked pretty much dead in the spring too. We had a late snow in February, 12 inches, which is unheard of for here. So what I did was wait until I saw new growth then followed the clean up steps. They did great. So I don’t think you have anything to worry about with your strawberries. Sometimes I don’t get to my clean up until spring. I hope that helps.
Covered out strawberry patch with chicken wire top to stop birds from eating. But plants are tooo tall and hit against the wire. Should I make box taller or hope the plants will adjust??
Claudia, I would adjust it up if you can. I’ve never had to cover mine because of birds or squirrels. We lose a few but not enough to take countermeasures. I hope that helps.
Hi. What can I do to stop the ants eating my strawberries in my raised bed
Patricia, I’ve not had problems with ants on my strawberries but I know diatomaceous earth can help stop them. Put a ring of it around the plants and the ants won’t cross it. If you also have aphids, try to get rid of them too, as they can attract ants as they give off a food source for the ants. If you have aphids, I’d get live ladybugs and release them into the yard. You can also try this aphid spray recipe it works well for us with aphids on our roses. I hope one of these solutions helps you.
Hi!! I am having a horrible time with ants taking over my strawberry beds. They are building dirt piles on top of all of the plants! I have tried washing off the dirt piles, but they just build them again. My plants are just not doing as well as they used to before the ants took over. Do you have any suggestions? We have 3 lg. beds of berries. Mary
Mary, I’m so sorry you are dealing with ants. That is awful. You can try sprinkling diatomaceous earth around the plants or try my aphid spray, you can find the recipe here. That will kill aphids which could be a food source for the ants. But that spray if you use a peppermint soap in it, may help to repell the ants too. I hope one of those solutions can help.
My strawberry bed was doing great, then the berries started developing gray mold and the leaves started yellowing and dying. What should I do?Leah
Leah, I’m so sorry your strawberries are struggling. It sounds like you might have fungus attacking the berries. This can be caused by too much water and not enough sun making for a perfect environment for fungus to grow. This article has some suggestions you might try. I hope it helps.
My strawberry plants are too leafy. Last year, i did not have any, not one strawberry fruit. This spring, I was surprised there are a lot of flowers, and too many leaves they are covering the flowers underneath. Can I remove some of the leaves to expose the flowers better to the sun?
Ellen, I think you can leave the leaves on. I’ve had years when my strawberries had lots of leaves on the plant with lots of flowers and the bees still were able to find the flowers to pollenate them. I did have to lift leaves to find the berries to pick but it didn’t hurt the strawberries from forming. I hope that helps.