Following our Fruit Pruning Guide last week, a few people got in touch to ask what to do with strawberry plants at this time of year, so we thought we’d cover this in an article this week.
Looking after strawberries is very straightforward, and in late autumn, all you really need to do is cut back any escaping runners (these look like little stalks creeping out from the main plant…just snip them back with secateurs and chuck them in your compost pile), remove any dead foliage and give them a mulch – some fresh compost will do, or a leaf mould if you made any last year.
They are pretty hardy plants and will be fine during the winter as long as we don’t get an extreme cold spell (ours survived the snow from ‘The Beast from the East’ a few years back, but if you were worried you could simply lay some fleece over the top of them if snow is on the forecast.) If you’re growing them in pots, it’s a good idea to move them to a sheltered spot if they are in a frost pocket, but really they should be tough enough to withstand the winter.
They’ll stay mostly green through winter, and in early spring you will see new leaves bouncing up ahead of a flurry of flowers and fruit.