Please explain renovation of a strawberry plant

Question

Do I really have to mow my plant down after harvest? Wont I loose my runners that way? We just planted them this year and got about 5 berries I am afraid of killing the plants.

Answer 1

Keep it well weeded.  The weeds are what kill strawberry plants.

Answer 2

http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/...

check this out

Answer 3

I love my strawberries but I have never heard of this? You should cut of the runners and plant them elsewhere though, perhaps this is what was meant?

Answer 4

First of all, are you sure they are June-bearers? You only need to renovate June-bearing strawberries. If so, read on.

You don't need to renovate on year one of a strawberry bed. You shouldn't even allow the plants to fruit in year one.

This fall you'll want to establish the runners. Don't cut them off. Place them around the mother plant where you want them to take root and hold them down with a little soil or a small rock on the stem, and leave them alone. By next spring, you'll have a nice, full bed.

Fertilize in early spring next year - March or April. After the harvest is done, you can renovate if you want to. Personally I'd wait another year. When you do renovate the bed, be sure not to cut the crowns of the plants, only remove the leaves. Cutting the crowns will kill the plants. Then fertilize with 10-10-10. This will force the plant into a growth cycle to make new leaves and more runners. This is how you can continually keep the bed full with new plants, pulling any sickly, old plants and replacing them with new runners.

I grow Earlglow and AllStar berries for market. I've found that for me it's best to keep a row in production for about 5 years. I only renovate on year 3 and then replace the row after harvesting year 5. After year 5 production drops off and the row becomes harder to manage with all the runners everywhere. You could keep them going a few more years if you don't have too many to deal with.