Aside from fertilizing, the berries you get this year are from the plants you grew last year. Cutting back is mostly what you do after this year's crop is picked, not before.

Someone gave me some strawberry plants (have no idea what they are, they weren't sure either) do I still need to pinch off the flowers? And how many times can you transplant strawberries? Or is it best to leave them where I plant them? I'm putting in my first garden this season and just raking some soil into mounds for planting. But over the course of the fall/winter I'd like to start putting in some raised beds for next years planting. Would it be ok to transplant the strawberries into the raised bed? I'm planning to do my raised beds possible out of cinderblocks since there is a pallet of them just sitting around, is that a good choice or is wood better? Thanks Nico

Well, you remember I took my extra veggie starts (as well as some strawberry plants from the nursery) to market starting June 1, but didn't sell that many. It was too late in what ended up being an early season - people usually plant around Mem Day here, and it was extra warm (after the late April freezes) so a lot of gardens got planted early - even the people who started too early, in April, had replaced their plants by the time market started. Hanging baskets might work though - esp. if they'll bear that year.

Telow, The rules aren't set in concrete. Either 3 or 4 years to renew a bed will work. It depends on how matted the plants get during the first three years and if you see any signs of disease or obvious decline. If I set bareroot June bearing plants in the spring I prefer to take off all the blooms the first year. (I treat blueberry plants the same way.) You don't have to put dirt over the runners, they will root by themselves if the ground is moist and soft enough. You may want to clip the ends of the runners though as in good soil one runner may put down 3 or 4 plants and get out into the paths. You may also want to direct the runners to where you want them to go. In that case it does help to put some dirt over the runner stem to hold it in place. Healthy strawberry plants make a lot of runners so you may even want to clip some of them off after the row is as wide and full as you want it. And they will keep on making runners so after 3 or 4 years you will have a very crowded planting. That is the time to remove the original row of plants and allow the younger ones to take over the bed, or to start over in a new spot. Back thirty five years ago we kept a bed going for many years without reordering plants by tilling out the old original plants through the middle of what had become a 4 ft wide solid planting. Then a couple years later when the center had filled back in, we tilled off each side, then a couple years later the middle again. Despite top dressing with compost each time, the bed finally deterioated and we bought new plants and started a new bed in a new place. Remember that strawberries like a mildly acid soil, so if you have alkaline soil, you may want to take steps to acidify it some. And don't make the mistake a friend of ours did years ago of tilling wood ashes into the area before setting his plants and again every spring until he had killed them. In our climate strawberries can also benefit from some afternoon shade.