What to Do With Strawberries in April – the Simple Spring Reset for a Summer of Bigger, Sweeter Berries

April is a “make or break” time for your strawberry plants. This is when the plants are waking up from winter dormancy and starting to grow and bloom. After a long, cold winter, new growth is ready to peak out from under the old mulch. Now is the time to treat your plants right, so they’ll reward you later.

Growing strawberries can be as simple as mostly leaving the plants alone, but if you want strong, healthy plants and to maximize your summer harvest, now is the time to get your hands dirty. Dust off your gardening tools, maybe wear a light sweater, and get into the strawberry patch to do these five crucial tasks.

1. Tidy Your Patch

Winter tends to leave the garden a little messy. It’s worth taking some time to tidy up your strawberry patch, and the plants will thank you for doing so. First, remove any unnecessary debris, like dead leaves and twigs. Clear out old mulch that’s decaying and remove any leaves still on the plants from last year. This lets the crowns breathe a little to prevent rotting.

Your tidying task should also include pulling out any early weeds. Weeds compete with berry plants for nutrients and water. Start to remove them now to get ahead of growth, but return to the patch throughout the growing season to keep pulling any weeds that pop up.

Finally, consider removing some of the runners. Snip off old runners that will divert energy away from the main plants. If you’re trying to control the growth of your patch, this is a good time to cut off new runners heading in directions you don’t want the plants to spread. Fiskars' Micro-Tip snips are perfect for this task. Press the runners you keep into the soil to encourage new plants to grow and fill in any empty spaces.

Strawberry Plant Picks

If you have lost some of your strawberry plants over winter, then April is your last chance to plant new bare-root plants for fruit this year, but you can plant nursery plug plants into May.

2. Add Fresh Mulch

Once you’ve given the crowns of your berry plants a little breathing time, it’s a good idea to add fresh mulch. Mulch is important for strawberries because it holds moisture in the soil and minimizes weeds. Mulch also provides a clean surface for berries to ripen.

Straw is a great choice for mulching strawberry plants as it's good at both holding moisture in the soil and allowing for airflow to prevent rotting. Try this HealthiStraw GardenStraw. Straw is also very clean, providing the ideal surface for ripening berries. Just be sure you get straw, not hay, and that it is clean and free of weed seeds.

Bark mulch is too heavy for strawberries and doesn’t let enough air through.

3. Feed Your Berry Plants, Maybe

Believe it or not, fertilizing the plants in spring may or may not improve the harvest later. Strawberries are heavy feeders, but April is not the time to fertilize June-bearing plants. Extra nutrients now lead to excessive foliage growth and softer berries that rot more easily. Late summer or fall is a better time to feed this type of strawberry plant.

However, if you have everbearing or day-neutral strawberry plants, now is the time to fertilize strawberries to support continuous fruit production. Use a balanced product, like a 10-10-10, or a product designed for strawberries, like this TPS Plant Foods Strawberry Fertilizer. Apply the fertilizer now and again next month.

4. Protect Early Blooms from Late Frosts

Depending on where you live and garden, you’re likely to start seeing some strawberry flowers as early as April. This is an exciting preview of the summer harvest to come, but it’s also a potentially dangerous time. A frost now could damage or totally kill those delicate blooms, preventing them from becoming berries later.

Keep an eye on the weather forecast and protect any April flowers if necessary. Use row covers – like these AGfabrics floating row covers – if you have a lot of blooms to protect. If you only have a few, you can use towels, blankets, buckets, or even extra straw mulch.

Remove any flowers that get damaged by frost, so the plant can put more energy into the others. Frost damage is easy to spot. You’ll see a black or dark brown spot right in the center within a day of the cold snap. If the damage is severe, the entire flower may darken and even fall off on its own.

5. Pinch Flowers (First Year Only)

This April strawberry task has a caveat: only do it if you have just put new plants in the ground this spring. For mature plants, you want to keep all flowers in place to maximize your harvest. For new plants, pinching some of the flowers will help the summer berries develop more fully.

Watch your plants and pick off any new flower buds that appear for the first two to three weeks. After that, let them grow. This allows the plant to develop healthy, numerous leaves during the early growth period. Having enough big, healthy leaves is crucial for ensuring the plant has enough energy later to develop large and juicy berries.

April is a critical time for summer strawberries, so don’t skimp on these tasks. Give your plants time and attention now to enjoy the best possible harvest later.