Strawberry patch

**chowder** · 03-10-2011, 04:09 PM

Last year I put in a patch of strwberry plants(zone5).Now that the snow has melted ,I can see the plants.Some of the leaves look dead others green.When Spring does finally come and things warm and dry up is there anything I should do to them.Do I need to take off the dead leaves or will the new ones just grow up through them?Also I have straw waiting to mulch with,when is the best time to do this?Thanks for any advice on these.

**Contrary Housewife** · 03-10-2011, 04:53 PM

They will green up by themselves and start putting out runners. In fact you may already have some strays from last year. If you get enough root they can be transplanted into spaces where older plants died. Plants last about 3 years.

You want to weed and put down straw before they start to set fruit. The idea is to keep the berries out of the wet ground.

**chowder** · 03-12-2011, 04:38 PM

Thanks for the info,and yes I did see some runners.

**Contrary Housewife** · 03-12-2011, 08:48 PM

Mine got so overgrown with weeds last year that they all died, but one. So now I'm debating whether to replant or not... yields were never that good, birds got a lot of them.

**frugalwarrior2** · 03-12-2011, 09:48 PM

Keep planting the runners and you will always have strawberry plants.Yum.
I bought mine at a school. The older gentleman told me make a new soil manure mix,start a new area every 2 years by transplanting. They are nutrient greedy (suck the soil dry).
Maybe buy a little tuille (sp) at the fabric store. I had a squirrel named 1 bite Willy who munched all mine to pieces.