Is it worth mowing the strawberry leaves after fruiting?

If our post-harvest strawberries look OK, i.e. you don’t see a lot of disease or pests (especially spider mites) on the leaves, the strawberries aren’t overly weedy, they seem to be in good shape,I don’t think there’s much point in mowing the leaves.However, if the plants do not look good, i.e. the leaves are heavily infected by powdery mildew, white spot or spider mite (microscopic green spider mite), it is undoubtedly better to cut them down. However, for this to make sense it should be done as soon as possible after the harvest and the cut leaves together with the weeds should be removed from the plantation immediately. Early mowing of the leaves will give the strawberries more time to regenerate, i.e. to recover their leaves by autumn. Mowed plant parts can be a source of infection for newly emerging leaves. Therefore, the sooner we remove this source, the better it will be for our crop and the easier the eventual weeding willbe.

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