Simple care tips to prepare your strawberry plants for winter

Nothing is more rewarding than having healthy and happy patches of strawberries to harvest from over the summer months. One of the most common plants in home gardens, strawberries are not only easy to grow, but their use in a variety of different dishes is unbeatable. In today’s blog, we walk you through what you can do now with fall quickly approaching to get your strawberry plants in the best shape that they can be to survive the winter.

Protecting your strawberry plants over the winter

Many varieties of strawberries are quite hardy, but if you live in a zone like us where the ground freezes hard, protecting your plants over the winter will go a long way to ensuring that they not only survive the winter, but that they continue to be productive for you in years to come. Protecting your strawberry plants over the winter will help to hinder harmful damage to next season’s buds, help stifle root damage or heaving from extreme fluctuations in soil temperatures over the winter, and to lock in sufficient moisture to sustain development in the spring. By taking steps to adequately prepare your strawberry plants for winter, it will help them during their winter dormancy period by setting them up with everything they need to emerge as happy and healthy plants during the spring thaw.

Determine which varieties of strawberries you have in your garden to choose the best winter care plan

The fist step to properly winterize your strawberry plants is determining which type of strawberry plants that you have growing in your patch. In general, there are three types of plants that most gardeners will have in their home gardens: 1.) June-bearing, 2.) Ever-bearing, and 3.) Day-neutral. For June-bearing varieties, these berries produce their buds during the fall season, set blooms in the spring, and produce one harvest a year usually in the month of June. Ever-bearing strawberries wait to set fruit during the longer days of the year and will usually produce about 3-4 large harvests.

Day-neutral strawberries will continue to produce fruit throughout much of the typical growing season as long as temperatures do not fall too low to stop them from producing blooms or setting fruit. In most places, all three types of strawberries will go into a dormancy period over the winter during which they take the time to rejuvenate and prepare for the next growing season.

Trim back and thin out your strawberry patches

The best way to prepare your June-bearing strawberries for winter is to prune back the foliage to one or two inches above the ground. Since this is very delicate work, use a pair of fine pruning garden shears and be sure not to damage the crown as this is the main source of life and development for your strawberry plant. At this point, you can also thin out the patch if the plants have grown too close together. You can do this by removing any excess runners or transplanting a few plants to a different spot of the garden to allow for space and growth for next year’s patch.

If you find that some plants have succumbed to weather conditions or pest/disease pressure, be sure to dispose of these to stop them from spreading to other plants. Be sure to also remove any weeds or debris around your strawberry plants to prevent the spread of any harmful diseases that may be living among them.

Caring for Ever-Bearing and Day-Neutral Strawberries: Disease Prevention and Patch Maintenance

For ever-bearing and day-neutral strawberries, go through and inspect your strawberry plants for any signs of disease and remove any leaves that look like they have been infected or look like they have been damaged. Sometimes it may be beneficial to remove entire plants if there is a risk for disease spreading to neighbouring strawberry plants. With ever-bearing and day-neutral strawberries, you may also need to thin the patch out so that they have the space they need to put on new growth in the spring.

At this point, you will also want to trim away any excess runners so that the plants can focus all their energy on putting out new growth through the crown when they awaken in the spring. If you are removing any diseased foliage, do not dispose of it in your compost pile as diseases can live on over the winter and re-infect other parts in your garden when spreading compost that has diseased foliage in it. Be sure to also clean your pruners in between removing diseased foliage so that you do not transfer any diseases to other strawberry plants or other plants in your garden.

Fertilize your strawberry plants before the first frost

To help your strawberry plants survive the winter, you will want to keep them well fertilized before going into their winter dormancy period. In most cases, this means giving them a good fertilizing at least one month before your expected first frost in the fall. When fertilizing, be sure to take caution not to sprinkle fertilizer on the leaves as this can burn the foliage. Also, do not directly apply fertilizer to the roots. Instead, gently spread the fertilizer out from the roots a bit.

After you have spread the fertilizer, be sure to water it in so that the plants can take up the vital nutrients they need to grow strong and healthy in the spring. Try to apply the fertilizer when there is no immediate threat of heavy rains as these rains will wash away all your hard work and not provide the plants with the vital nutrition that they need to get them through the winter dormancy period.

Keep up with your watering until the first frost

To adequately prepare your strawberry plants for winter, you will want to keep up with regular watering until your expected average first frost in the fall. If you have a lot of rain in the forecast, you do not need to be as diligent with the water during this period, but if you climate tends to be on the drier side, you will want to make sure that you are giving your strawberry plants at least an inch of water every week in the time leading up to your first frost date. If you’re growing in a zone that receives winter precipitation like snow, you will not have to water, but instead, will let mother nature take over the care during the winter. As long as you have adequately prepared your plants for their winter dormancy, they will emerge in the spring healthy and strong from their long winter’s nap.

Look for ways to insulate your berries over the winter

To help protect your strawberry plants for harsh winter conditions, mulch will be your best friend. This is especially important if you live in an area that does not get a lot of snow which can act as a natural insulation barrier. Make sure that you are applying mulch around your plants and lightly covering the foliage. What you want to avoid is smothering your plants with a very dense and heavy mulch. Straw is traditionally used as mulch in strawberry patches, but you can also use crushed up leaves. Make sure though that if you are using crushed up leaves that it is fine enough to not create a heavy and dense blanket over your strawberries when they are wet.

Mulching your strawberry plants over the winter helps them to have the maximum chill hours that they need during their winter dormancy, aids in retaining moisture to support future spring growth, and helps to create a way for excess moisture to drain so that the plants are not sitting in piles of standing water. When laying your mulch in your strawberry patch, timing is everything. Too soon and you will warm the plants up too much causing them to put on new growth when they should be preparing for their winter dormancy period.

By spreading mulch too early, you could also run the risk of trapping in too much moisture leading to root rot. Applying mulch too soon can also attract rodents that are looking for homes to burrow into for the winter. The best time to apply your mulch is well after the first frost when the plants are starting to turn brown and the ground has not yet frozen completely solid, usually around late November-early December.

Final thoughts on preparing your strawberries for winter

Preparing your strawberry plants for winter does take a bit of elbow grease and attention to detail up front, but the rewards that you will reap in the spring with a delightful harvest of juicy berries is well worth the effort. Fall is the perfect time to start thinking about ways that you can protect these precious plants in your garden over the winter. Until next time gardening friends, we hope you take the time this fall to get out in your strawberry patch and start preparing your strawberries for their long winter’s nap. Come spring, your efforts now will reward you greatly with a bountiful harvest of delicious strawberries! Visit us on social media and let us know how your strawberry patch is doing.