Only timely pruning of strawberry bushes will allow her to gain strength for fruiting. Such an event will not weaken the bush, but, on the contrary, will make it more powerful and healthy.
Do I need to cut strawberries
There is still no consensus: whether to cut strawberries or not. Very often, because of the summer-autumn hassle, strawberries remain untidy, go in winter with all the leaves and a mustache and in the spring give a wonderful harvest. Other gardeners cut the bushes completely, new greens grow in winter, and in spring strawberries also bloom and bear fruit. So who is right?
Let's look at the positive and negative points of a full crop of strawberries.
Table: Pros and Cons of Full Trimming
| Positive side trim | Negative points |
| All diseased and damaged leaves are cut off. | Healthy and young leaves are removed. |
| Unnecessary whiskers and sockets are removed, plantation thickening is not allowed. | Without leaves, the bush loses its nutrition, it experiences stress and begins to grow foliage faster again, which weakens the bush. |
| The bush looks young and green. | Instead of laying flower buds for a future crop, the bush spends energy on the leaves. |
If your plantation is several beds, it is best not to remove all the leaves without exception, but only select old, diseased ones. When there is no need to increase the plantation, it is better to remove the mustache with sockets immediately.
If you do not remove the mustache, the bed with strawberries will quickly grow
When is it better to cut strawberries
Strawberries require constant care. In the spring, they carry out sanitary pruning of bushes after wintering. During the fruiting period, the extra whiskers are cut, and after harvesting, healthy pruning is performed, cutting the leaves completely or partially, in addition, reddened or diseased leaves can be cut in the autumn.
Spring strawberry pruning
In the very first visit to the cottage in early spring, inspect strawberries. If there is already no snow, then you can do sanitary pruning: remove dead, damaged and red leaves. It is best to collect them by hand or use a fan rake, since the root system of a strawberry is superficial, delicate and ordinary rakes can damage it. Immediately after such pruning, you need to feed strawberries: pour 5-7 granules HB -101 under each bush and sprinkle with a bio-cocktail. So you help the strawberries wake up and start to grow.
Bio-cocktail recipe: for 1 liter of water we take 2 granules of the Healthy Garden drug + 2 Ecoberin granules (homeopathy for plants) and 2 drops of liquid HB 101 (immunostimulant).
This is how strawberries come out after winter: you need to remove all dry and damaged leaves, since pests can hide under them
After a week, you can carry out fertilizing with liquid organic or mineral fertilizers. For example, use the liquid biohumus "Gumistar" in accordance with the instructions. After warming up the soil, add compost, vermicompost, or granular horse manure to the aisles or under each bush separately - this will serve as food for strawberries at the time of peduncle forcing. It is very useful to mulch the soil with straw to prevent quick drying.
Photo gallery: strawberry dressing
- Gumistar is divorced in accordance with the instructions
- Orgavit can be sprinkled dry with several granules under each bush, so during the season, food will slowly be given to the soil
- Biohumus - an excellent top dressing for strawberries
Harvest strawberries
Immediately after the harvest, when the last berry is removed from the bush, you need to trim the old leaves. Pruner or pruned shears cut damaged and diseased leaves, remove the mustache, if you do not need outlets for reproduction. On the bush should remain 5-7 young leaves in the center. Sprinkle and feed strawberries with organic or mineral fertilizers immediately. By winter, a lush and strong bush will grow.
After harvesting, you need to trim the old leaves, leaving 5-7 young leaves in the center
Straw pruning in the fall
You can often see this picture: in mid-August, all leaves are cut off, leaving stumps, while planting young outlets in a new place. Unfortunately, making a full pruning of the bush later than mid-July, you simply deprive yourself of part of the crop, since in August flower buds are laid for next spring. When you completely cut the leaves from the strawberries, the plant experiences stress, the normal movement of the juices from the roots to the foliage stops. Then the strawberry, instead of laying the future crop, spends the effort to grow new leaves. That is why it is recommended to clean the foliage immediately after harvesting, and not when replanting bushes in August.
Such pruning at the end of summer or autumn will greatly weaken the plant.
Autumn pruning (September-October) can be carried out selectively, removing reddened or diseased leaves or bushes.
Photo Gallery: Mandatory Leaves
- Redness of the leaves indicates their age, they are not sick, but do not participate in photosynthesis - delete without a doubt
- Leaves on old bushes often suffer from brown or white spotting.
- Twisted leaves damaged by strawberry mites must be removed
- We remove leaves covered with white coating - powdery mildew
Strawberry mustache pruning
Some varieties of strawberries during the growing season form many mustaches, from which rosettes of young plants then develop. If you do not remove them in time, the bed will grow very quickly. Instead of pouring berries, strawberries will grow young bushes, so it is advisable to remove the antennae immediately after their appearance, while they are still thin and fragile.
Strawberry mustache is better to cut immediately so that the plant does not waste energy on growing rosettes
But most often the mustache is removed already when the bush is completely trimmed, after collecting all the berries.
If you need sockets to increase the plantation, then even during the fruiting period, mark those bushes where there were the most berries. In the future, take a mustache from this bush, even if the sockets are not the most beautiful.
Strawberry Care
Now there are more and more varieties of repair strawberries, whose berries are distinguished by excellent taste and size. Each bush can reach up to 50 cm wide and in one season grow up to a kilogram of delicious berries. Such fruiting is only possible with proper care and constant feeding. Therefore, the traditional pruning for repair shrubs is not done, since the formation of peduncles and ripening of berries occurs throughout the season, and complete pruning of leaves will weaken the plant.
Removable strawberries bloom and bear fruit all summer, so they selectively prune them
Periodically cut off diseased, dry and damaged leaves, as well as a mustache, if you do not need them for reproduction.
Since the repair strawberry is very intensive in growth and fruiting, new bushes are planted every 2-3 years, in contrast to ordinary strawberries, replanted every 4-5 years.
Video: Straw pruning and post-harvest care
Straw pruning is an important event to maintain plantation health and to lay the future crop. But only pruning done on time will not allow you to exhaust the bushes, but make them healthier and stronger.
