To pinch or not pinch strawberry blossoms..Here's my answer...

[journey11]

Thanks Journey! You are now Professor Strawberry to me
That was very educational and I will certainly follow your procedure if I ever seriously grow strawberries.

One of these days, if I ever get to have a farm, I think it would be fun to set up a U-pick. But yeah, if you're just growing them for fun or for your kids, I'd say no harm, no foul.

 

[country freedom]

I've ordered the wild stawberry from Bakers Creek - Red Wonder.......am I to treat these the same way - pinch the first year?

I have never grown strawberries before.

 

[trunkman]

On my 3rd year of raising strawberries, I'm pro-pinching.

What I've found is that a plant that doesn't have well established roots, if you don't pinch, you also get smaller strawberries. When I'm canning, I get really tired of coring tiny berries. But if you're just going to toss a few on your cereal, you probably won't care about that as much.

Also crucially important to note is which kind of strawberry you are working with...

On Everbearers, these are mother plants you will be keeping for 4-5 years. Each year, the plant gets stronger and develops more crowns which equals more berries per plant. I only pinch blooms and runners in the first SPRING on my newly planted Everbearers. You will still get a late-summer/early-fall harvest off of them that very same year. Everbearers put out a few berries at a time over a long period of a couple months and are better suited to fresh eating.

Junebearers are managed in an entirely different fashion. I won't put Junebearers in a raised bed because they are just nuts about sending out runners. Most of your U-picks raise Junebearers and because of their high burst of production, these berries are more suitable for canning/preserving. From my small established patch last year I harvested 11 gallons of berries. After that I got tired of picking them and turned them over to the neighborhood kids. I put up lots of Strawberry Freezer Jam. Summer in a jar! It's all that's gotten me through this long, dismal winter.

Now on these Junebearers, when I first started the patch with newly purchased plants, I spent all spring pinching them. It was very time consuming and next time I might not bother. They won't bloom after that, but then they go into runner mode. Once the plants had established a good root system, I let them go ahead and produce runners. On Junebearers, you WANT those runners, because they are next year's bearing plants. Although I would let the first year plants alone, on all following years, you will be tilling under the plants that had produced this year and you let those new runners get established to be NEXT year's bearing plants. You only keep a thin row of the new runners. All that time for roots to be established is already accomplished in that Summer/Fall period in which they were runners. By next Spring, they are strong and ready to go. After that first initial planting, there would be no need to ever pinch again. As long as they are disease free, you keep that stock and keep the cycle going.

Soooo...I think if you give your Junebearers good soil and good growing conditions, you should be able to get away with not pinching them. If you have a field of 1000's of them, of course you're not going to waste your time pinching. If you only have 25-50 new plants and you have the time on your hands, you do get a little advantage by pinching them. Everbearers, I firmly advocate pinching.

My go-to book on strawberries (and every other berry you can think of) is "Successful Berry Growing" by Gene Logsdon.

Hope that this has been some help here in exploring the mysteries of How, Why and When to pinch strawberries. Ultimately, it's not the end of the world, whichever way you decide to go.

Wow, thanks for the education, shows how much I know! Thanks for the insight, I'll be taking your advice. Like I said I'm new to strawberries and by no means have I time tested or experimented and am grateful for the advice! To all of you who read my post and took it at heart, please disregard! Again, Thanks Journey11!

 

[journey11]

I've ordered the wild stawberry from Bakers Creek - Red Wonder.......am I to treat these the same way - pinch the first year?

I have never grown strawberries before.

I've never grown the wild ones before, so I'm not familiar with their growth habits. I think Wifezilla on here has some. You might drop her a message and see how she does hers.

I hope you get lots of berries and lots of enjoyment from your patch, Trunkman. I don't intend to sound like a know it all, but I try to be of some help if I can. I really don't think you can go wrong either way. I guess it just depends on how focused you are on their production. They will beat the heck out of store-bought berries either way.

Oh, I can't wait for that first ripe strawberry... Still dreaming of spring here!

 

[thistlebloom]

Hey Journey, I for one appreciate you sharing your experience and knowledge. Don't hold back

 

[wsmoak]

On Everbearers, these are mother plants you will be keeping for 4-5 years. Each year, the plant gets stronger and develops more crowns which equals more berries per plant. I only pinch blooms and runners in the first SPRING on my newly planted Everbearers. You will still get a late-summer/early-fall harvest off of them that very same year. Everbearers put out a few berries at a time over a long period of a couple months and are better suited to fresh eating.

I finally found the packing slip for the strawberries I planted last year, and they are everbearers.

I got them in late April last year and they went crazy last summer and fall and sent out runners *everywhere*. They really made a mess, runners criss-crossed all over the place in their 4x8 bed.

So this is their first spring and apparently I should be pinching off all those lovely blossoms and berries! Nope, can't do it.

I'm a bit confused though, you say I'll be keeping the mother plant. I'm not sure I can tell the mother plant from the runners that rooted last fall and overwintered. And I also just read something that said everbearers don't send out very many runners. I don't have any June-bearers to compare to, but I thought there were a lot! Maybe Gurney's mislabeled them... oh well, they were on sale for $5, I'll be happy if I get some berries.

-Wendy

 

[journey11]

Oh, don't pinch those blooms this year, Wendy! Yours are ready to get down to business since you planted them last year. The logic behind pinching and not letting them set fruit that first spring is that the plant should put more of its energy into establishing its roots. Yours are ready to enjoy now. But do keep pinching the runners on those everbearers......runners sap the plant's energy to produce berries. Since everbearers will produce again late summer/fall, you don't want to let them make more than maybe 4 runners per plant, but even those could be pinched off if you didn't want them for transplants (some people will just buy new stock instead.) You'll know which ones the mother plants are because they'll be much bigger. They can add new crowns to the main plant each year. I don't know why, but for some reason they just die out after 4 or 5 years though.

On those junebearers now, they are runner-crazy. Even the runners make multiple runners!

 

[curly_kate]

Great info! I planted a bunch of Junebearers, and DH & I were so sad to find out that we wouldn't have any strawberries off of them this year. But it sounds like it will be worth it in the end.

 

[MotherBrugger]

Thanks from me too Journey. And very glad I read this thread, I have a 5 ft. tall strawberry tower that is only half filled in. I was pondering which type to order to fill in the top. You have just made my mind up for me. I ordered 'Surecrop' 25 plants, from Parkseed a few minutes ago. The other 25 already in and growing are Tribute, from Park too.
Journey, do you have any pointers on the 'Day Neutrals?' That's what 'Tribute' is. You teach me berries, I'll teach you brugs!
Another question Journey: DO you know anything about alpine berries? I started vsca from seed in December. Will they fruit this year or do I have to wait? Do they make runners?
edit: cruddy spullin'

 

[journey11]

You know, I've never grown any day neutrals or alpine strawberries, but odds are good someone on here will be familiar with them.

Here is a good article I found on the Day Neutrals though.... http://ccesuffolk.org/assets/Hortic...-Day-Neutral-Strawberries-In-Home-Gardens.pdf Sounds as if they have many ideal qualities!