Strawberry bed

Sumner, IA(Zone 4b)

I have a june-bearing strawberry bed and I usually mow it off right after I finish picking the last of the berries. This year I didn't do that. Does anyone know if it is too late? Maybe should just let it go until spring now. Should I be afraid of mowing off their winter protection this late in the season?

Alexandria, IN(Zone 6a)

I would not mow them now. They need energy at this point to make their fruit buds for next spring

Charlotte, VT

I never heard of mowing strawberries. Will the parent plants bear as much as they did the year before? I had a friend that would rototill half of his bed after they got done bearing and let the daughters spread out into the newly created bed. What do you think of that? I myself just recently made a new bed of composted horse manure and put new plants in it. I never got around to doing it earlier and now I wonder if I made a huge mistake.

Alexandria, IN(Zone 6a)

Rototilling half the bed and letting new runners grow out into the tilled space will work perhaps. It depends on how well the older plants put out runners. It didn't work on a portion of my patch this year which was exiremely dry after June 25th.....strawberries need regular watering in kind of large amounts with their shallow roots.

south central, PA(Zone 6b)

I think you have to mow shortly after harvesting because then you'll mow off only the large old leaves. You don't want to mow off the tiny new leaves forming in the crown. By now the new leaves will have gotten too big I think.

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