How to prune strawberry plants in pots

Strawberries are delicious, easy to grow, and can produce fruit for several years. If you're growing strawberries in pots, they'll need regular pruning to ensure healthy plants and a bountiful harvest. In this article, we'll provide some tips and tricks to help you prune your strawberry plants in pots.

Why prune strawberry plants?

Pruning is essential to keep your strawberries healthy and productive. By removing dead or diseased leaves, you'll prevent diseases from spreading to the rest of the plant. Removing runners will also help to focus the energy of the plant on fruit production, resulting in a more abundant harvest.

When to prune strawberry plants?

In general, it's best to prune your strawberry plants in late winter or early spring, just before the growing season starts. This will allow you to remove any damaged or diseased foliage before new growth appears. However, if you notice any dead or diseased leaves during the growing season, you should remove them immediately.

How to prune strawberry plants?

The first step in pruning strawberry plants is to remove any dead or diseased foliage. Use a sharp pair of scissors or pruning shears to cut off any leaves that appear yellow, brown, or wilted. Be sure to sterilize your cutting tools between each plant to prevent the spread of disease.

The next step is to remove any runners that the plant has produced. Runners are long, thin stems that grow away from the plant and produce new baby plants. While it may be tempting to let these new plants grow, they'll only take energy away from the parent plant, resulting in smaller fruit. To remove the runners, you can simply snip them off with your scissors or shears.

If you're growing everbearing strawberries, you may want to prune them differently to ensure a continuous harvest. Unlike June-bearing strawberries, which produce all their fruit in one go, everbearing strawberries will produce fruit from early summer to early fall. To encourage this continuous growth, it's best to prune your everbearing strawberries throughout the growing season. Simply remove any spent blooms and cut back the foliage by about one-third after each harvest.

Conclusion

Pruning your strawberry plants is an important part of ensuring healthy plants and a bountiful harvest. By removing dead or diseased foliage and runners, you'll help your plants focus their energy on fruit production. If you're growing everbearing strawberries, be sure to prune them throughout the season to encourage continuous growth. With a little bit of pruning, you'll be on your way to enjoying delicious strawberries all season long.