Mulch on strawberries

[Rip_Some_Lip]

I mulched my strawberry patch last fall with leaves. It is at least 6" over plants. Should I rake or blow the leaves off or can I leave them there for weed control? I noticed a few plants sticking up out of the leaves but not sure if the rest would grow up through them. Thanks.

[pushbutton]

Kind of rule of thumb is when the first leaves start forming. See you are a "southerner", and would guess you would be good to go. Wouldn't leave more than an inch or two of mulch for weed control. Leaves can get pretty compact unless they were cut up beforehand.

[CANOPY SAM]

I think you gotta be a little careful about leaving leaves on there as well. Wet leaves tend to get quite a lot of mold and mildew on them, and you don't want this around your strawberry plants, or especially around your fresh strawberries!

We typically cover ours with straw late in the fall. Then remove most of it in the spring when it's dry enough, and before the plants begin to grow too much. We usually leave just enough straw to provide a little bed where the new berry growth can rest rather then having them on the ground in the dirt.

We also mow our plants to the ground a few weeks after they stop producing berries, and clean out all the old straw, any weeds, or left over detritus. Within a few weeks we've got lush, even new growth, and that's what we protect with 12 inches of straw, and subsequently deep snow in the winter.

Not sure if we're doing it all right, but we've been picking 5-7 gallons of strawberries with every picking, every few days thru the season, for the last 4 years, so we must be doing something right?