Looking for the best way to protect your strawberry plants from the harsh , freezing conditions that winter can bring ?
Although strawberries are a perennial industrial plant , they for sure benefit from a little help when it comes to weather the chill of wintertime . Not only to aid them exist , but to arrange the stage for inviolable growing and production next spring and summertime .
In fact , whether you grow your strawberry in the garden , raised bed , or in container or hanging baskets , how you put them to bed this fall can really spell the difference between a bumper craw next year , or plants that struggle to but inhabit and flower .
The good tidings is that protect strawberry plant is sure enough not hard nor time consuming . winner really comes down to protecting plants based on two authoritative component – how and where you grow your strawberries , and what type of hemangioma simplex flora you grow .
Are your strawberry June assume or everbearing ? Do you grow them in the earth in a traditional garden circumstance , in raise bottom , or in container ? As you will see below , your answers to these simple questions will dictate exactly how to like for your plants now – and make certain they are effective to go next spring !
With that in nous , here is a in - profundity look at how to in good order protect your strawberry plants – no matter how , where , or what miscellanea you grow !
How To Protect Strawberry Plants For Winter
June bearing strawberry get their name from their intense product that most often occurs ( depending where you live ) near or around the month of June . These varieties are almost always planted in garden preferences or permanent raised beds . They are seldom found as a container plant .
June bearing assortment bring out all their crop at once . Because of this , they postulate unlike attention than everbearing mixture of hemangioma simplex plants . And that care is different both in the summer , and when it come to protecting them for wintertime .
Once June bearing plants have completed their fruiting cycle , they should be cut and cut back back . This usually takes place in the month of July . Again , it all depends when your June bearing plants actually bear their fruit .
cut back plants after they have nail fruiting help regenerate new development for the follow year ’s crop . And by doing so in mid - summer , it also allow them enough sentence to arise a morsel of foliage for wintertime protection .
One of the biggest error gardener make with June bearing plants is to cut them back in the surrender . alas , it often result in the crop freezing out over winter , or at the very least , sustain heavy legal injury .
When cut back in the fall , they simply ca n’t arise enough shelter back to survive the freezing and thawing of wintertime . If you did n’t cut back your June bearing works this summer , whatever you do , don’tcut them back in the capitulation ! Just allow them to overwinter with the leaf they have in place .
June bearing strawberry plants , even with their belated season foliage growth , need to be mulch before the bitter cold of wintertime band in . It not only protect the strawberry plants from freeze out out , but keeps competing weeds by too . Mary Jane that can steal nutrients and impact production levels next year .
For mulching , straw , sliced leave of absence , and pine needles are all not bad options . put on a few column inch of mulch around and over top of the plants , Be measured not to smother them too deep . Avoid using whole farewell as they can contract and snuff the oxygen from the plants below .
Mulching should take place in former gloaming , as the plants go dormant and start to lose their leave-taking . Avoid the enticement of fertilizing your strawberry mark plants in the fall . Although it may sound like a helpful estimation , it actually can do more harm than unspoilt .
The new maturation that could result actually puts the plants in more risk of freezing out over winter . It is simply too tender and can not deal the abrasive conditions winter brings .
Unlike June bearing hemangioma simplex varieties , everbearing strawberry acquire their yield all time of year long . They can rise anywhere – whether it be in traditional garden place setting , resurrect beds , or even in smoke and containers .
How you grow your everbearing strawberry works will influence just how you ask to protect them . For more on everbearing strawberries , be sure to see : How To Grow Everbearing Strawberries Like A Pro !
Because everbearing varieties produce all time of year long , they are never cut back . But even though they keep their foliage in - tact up until the first frost , they still need a bit of protection to get them through winter .
Just as with the June birth plant life , garden or bed planted everbearing hemangioma simplex should get a few column inch of straw or tear up leave-taking in belated fall . As the works go into quiescency and their leaf begins to turn , it ’s time to mulch !
Again , stubble , pine needles or shredded leaves a few inches deep is the better choice for protecting the strawberry flora . The idea is to only provide them an extra layer of thermal protective cover to guard against unceasing freezing and thaw .
Potted everbearing strawberry plant life simply ca n’t protect their roots from freezing without a act of extra insulating assist . Containers will freeze and thaw incessantly if exit out . This constant change will usually suspend the root word of an everbearing hemangioma simplex institute out .
You really have two option when it comes to protecting pot strawberries , bringing them indoors , or digging the pots into the ground for wintertime .
If you have an open flowerbed or garden mount , you’re able to dig out an area the size of the container . Then , just “ plant ” the mountain into the soil and utilise a few inch of mulch over top . This gives them the same type of protection as strawberry plants that are in the ground .
This is in reality a great way to protect any perennial that you might uprise in containers each descent . See : How To Save Potted Perennials Over Winter ! protect Potted industrial plant
If that is not an option , lend your plants into a service department or basement that is cool , but does not block . When bringing into a garage setting , always place smoke against an interior stir up bulwark to help give them a bit of extra protection . When bringing inside , there is no need to apply the additional mulch .
Here is to helping out your strawberry plant life this fall – and to keeping them alive over winter ! felicitous Gardening – Jim and Mary .
Jim and Mary Competti have been writing gardening , DIY and recipe article and playscript for over 15 years from their 46 Accho Ohio farm . The two are frequent speakers on all things garden and love to journey in their supererogatory time .
