Taking Care of Your Strawberry Patch

After your June bearing strawberries have stopped producing for the year, it is the perfect time to renovate the strawberry patch. Pulling out some of the old plants will help the patch to produce better the next year, and if just left to its own, the patch will get overgrown, and there will be no room left for the new biggest producing plants.

Over Grown Patch

First I want to explain what a crown is in a strawberry. Each strawberry plant has about 3 or 4 little leaves that come out of the root and that is called the "crown", but as the plant ages, more and more "crowns" pop out of the same root. So then the root has many "crowns." It is ok for them to get a few, but as you can imagine, the root can only support so much before it gets over grown and the strawberry production diminishes.

Multiple crowned plant

 To renovate your strawberry patch, you want to pull out all the dead stuff that covers the bottom of the patch- the stuff that died during the winter. If you leave it, it provides a barrier that the new daughter shoots cannot get through.
As you work your way through the patch, you should also find the multiple crowned plants and pull them out by the root if you can. Leaving the smaller single or few crowned plants. These will send off shoots and you will get more new plants for the next season.
Pulling out any weeds you find while renovating is important, as strawberries do not compete well with weeds and other plants for water and nutrition.
After you are done pulling out the old plants, then putting on a good even fertilizer will do wonders for your patch. Then reapply the fertilizer in the early fall, watering it in after application.

Patch after some renovation but before mulch is applied.

I also like to add a nice loose mulch to the soil around the plants, this adds some micro nutrients, and also acts as a barrier for weeds, and keeps the soil more moist for the shallow rooted strawberries.
Growing strawberries in the garden can be a very rewarding experience, and if done right will produce a great harvest year after year.
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Happy Gardening!

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