Now is the time to ensure a good harvest from your strawberry planting next year. Strawberry flower buds begin to form in late summer, making this an important time of year to maintain good moisture levels in your strawberry bed. Plants generally required 1 ½- 2 inches or more of water each week depending on soil type and weather conditions. Apply enough water to wet the soil to a depth of 6-8 inches.
Renovation of the planting should have been done in late June after harvest, but additional thinning is required in late summer. Strive for a spacing of five to seven plants per square foot by mid-October for optimum fruit production next year.
Which plants should be removed when thinning? The number of leaves on a daughter plant in fall is a good indication of the plant’s vigor and fruiting potential. More leaves in fall equals more fruit production in spring. So remove small and weak plants. Also remove any new runners or daughter plants that have not rooted down. These will not have enough time to become established before winter or initiate flower bud development. Removing them will redirect the plant’s energy into the remaining flower buds.
Cultivate, or hoe, carefully around the remaining plants to remove weeds without damaging the strawberry root system.
Finally, apply a loose, organic mulch to the strawberry bed in late November or early December when daytime temperatures have dropped consistently into the 20’s or the soil has frozen to a depth of ½ inch.
The following publication is available for more information on growing strawberries.
Strawberries Are An Excellent Fruit For The Home Garden, http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1424.html
Sarah Browning is a Horticulture Extension Educator with University of Nebraska- Lincoln Extension in Dodge and Saunders Counties. She can be contacted by phone at 727-2775: by mail at 1206 W. 23rd Street, Fremont, NE 68025: or by e-mail at sbrowning2@unl.edu
