Strawberry Maintenance

Now is a great time to give established strawberry beds a clean and tidy though. Plants will still have some of last year’s leaves which will be looking tatty and tired and should be cleared away. It is also a great time to give them a feed and mulch.

This is probably what your plants are looking like at the moment, looking a little tired and ready for a clean through.

Go through the plants, removing all of the old foliage, leaving the new fresh ones behind. This material can be added to the compost heap.

Give the plants some fertiliser, here pelleted poultry manure is used.

I mulch my plants straight away once they have had a spring clean- up. It is easier and quicker to do it now whilst the foliage is small. This will stay on and support the crop as it develops. Straw or similar is the traditional material, here I am using a manufactured straw mulch.