[missycat]

I read on another thread that strawberries need feeding when they finish croping but what  should I use...bfb, manure, nettle tea, seaweed...?
also do I cut all the leaves off now or wait a few weeks after feeding?
I didn't cut any leaves off last Autumn as I had just planted them but one of my site neighbours said you need to remove this years leaves to prevent diseases.
Thanks

[Christine]

I always wait till the runners have had time to settle and put roots down before I start dealing with the strawberry plants.

You are only supposed to keep strawberry plants for three years in order to keep a good crop coming and ensure lack of disease. So I wait till the strawberry runners are healthy with roots and then cut their links to the old plants. Then I can remove three year old plants, keep two year old runners to crop next season and have runners which are in effect first year plants that you pick the flowers off for their first season to let them get their feet down.

I also lift all my strawberry plants, clear the dead leaves, work a lot of compost into the beds in late August along with chicken pellets for feeding as that is what I can get cheaply. Blood/Fish/Bone or Growmore will do just as well. Then I plant back the two year old plants and the new runners which should by then have good roots into two different parts of the beds so that I know which is which. I feed them again in October, leave to over winter and feed again in March (assuming any sign of growth).

That works on my plot as I haven't room to move the strawberry beds which you are supposed to do every three years.

[missycat]

Thanks for the advice Christine
I hadn't thought about lifting the plants to replenish the bed, it sounds much easier than weeding and feeding around them. Thanks

Some of my plants are in their second year and fruited fantastically, others are runners I potted up last year (I'm hoping they'll crop well next year) and I have 25 of this years runners already well rooted with more that'll be ready in a few weeks.

I'm hoping to extend my strawberry bed another 2X1 metres and like your idea of putting different aged plants in different areas, so will do 2x1m of 3, 2 and 1st year plants....I'm hoping to have enough time to make jam next year...this year I froze the excess.

[Christine]

I found it is easier to lift the lot as it allows you to have a really good old clear out. Sounds hard work but believe me - it saves time and fiddling says the idle gardener.