How Do You Cut Back Strawberry Plants?
When the month of June arrives, it is a real treat to walk into your strawberry patch and pick several quarts of big, juicy strawberries. To produce a consistently large crop of strawberries each year, the plants do require maintenance involving pinching of blooms, regulating the amount of runners and mowing off the dead leaves. The purpose in cutting back the strawberry plants is to keep the plants healthy, free of disease, and make them stronger for fruit production the next year. Pinch off new blossoms the first year after planting the strawberry plants. Pinch the blossom with your finger and thumb so as not to tear the stem. Pinching the blossoms puts the strength back into the plant for a large crop of strawberries the second year. Redirect the first runners shooting out from a June-bearing mother plant back into the strawberry row until the row is 12 inches wide. Push the end of the first runner that now has a couple of leaves a 1/2 an inch into the soil. Trim all new runners fro
