am I smothering strawberry plants??

[trunkman]

I know you are supposed to cover strawberry plants for the winter and most say with hay or straw to keep them from freezing over the winter. Well about a month ago after all the leaves have fallen I raked up all the leaves and covered the strawberries with about 6 inches of leaves. Now that I've done that I'm thinking that I may have covered them with the wrong material. My concern is that it may smother and kill them. When I covered them their foliage was still green and now I'm thinking I really messed up, if anyone out there has experience with this your knowledge would be greatly appreciated. Should I just let them be or take the leaves off and replace it with straw??? By the way I live in zone 7b.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i've never had a problem with using leaves as a winter mulch. but i'm not sure about on strawberries since i have lots of oak trees and those might have higher amounts of tannin in them. it might cause mold and fungus issues when they thaw out in the late winter/early spring.

 

[lesa]

I don't think it will hurt. Take a peek at the plants- mine are still pretty green under the straw...In your zone I would think you could uncover by the end of February or so.