Summer strawberry spruce-up

How do you ensure post-harvest that strawberries recover sufficiently to fruit again next year? Follow this plan for strawberry yields forever:

1

Strawberries need to build up strong crowns and leaf rosettes in order to support next year’s flower initiation and fruit development. Keep plants well fed (use a balanced liquid feed to bulk them up) and irrigated, well into early autumn. 2

Often the current year’s foliage looks tatty and tired post-harvest, so kick-start plants into producing more. Sever all leaves that aren’t green and healthy. With Step 1 in progress, your plants will soon produce a flush of verdant new foliage. 3

How old are your plants? To maintain vigour and good berry size, plants older than four years should ultimately be ditched. Before they are, peg down any runners that they produce (from healthy plants only) for autumn propagation.