I assume the question concerns traditional, non-repeating varieties. Here we have two schools of thought. One says – cut back, the other – absolutely do not cut back. One thing is certain, if our strawberries look OK after the harvest, meaning there’s no significant disease or pest infestation (especially spider mites) visible on the leaves, the strawberries aren’t overly weedy, they seem to be in good condition and “have life in them”, then, in my opinion, cutting the leaves doesn’t make much sense.🙂
However, if the plants🌱 don’t look their best, i.e., the leaves are heavily affected by powdery mildew, white spot disease, or spider mites (microscopic, green spider), then without a doubt, it would be better to cut them back.
But for this action to make sense, it needs to be done as soon as possible after the harvest, and the cut leaves along with the weeds should be promptly removed from the plantation (it will make nice compost. Why is this so important?🧐 Early leaf cutting gives strawberries more time to regenerate, i.e., to restore leaves by autumn. Cut plant parts can be a source of infection for newly emerging leaves. Therefore – the sooner we remove this source, the better for our crop and the easier it will be to possibly weed it.
When cutting back leaves, remember about the increased nutritional needs of the plants. After all, they need to rebuild their leaf apparatus in a short time. Therefore, I advise applying one of the multi-component fertilizers immediately after removing the cut leaves, preferably with a high amount of nitrogen, at a rate of 2.5 – 3 kg/100 m².
