I'm in my first year of growing strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries, and I noticed that the leaves from last winter have died but are still on the plants. Some of them are even still green, but all are dry and crunchy. As spring starts, I'm curious whether I should remove the old leaves or let them stick around, hoping they will rehydrate. What's the best way to handle this?
2 Answers
Dead leaves won’t rehydrate, so it’s smart to clean up to prevent any potential diseases. Just wait until the frost has passed, though! If you prune before a frost, it can harm the plant since you’ll create cuts that frost can affect. A lot of times, the dead stuff will just fall off as the plant starts growing again anyways.
I'll be removing the dead leaves from my container strawberries soon, but I'm waiting a bit longer since we've had some unseasonably mild weather, but frost is still expected. Once the frost danger passes, I'll tidy them up and add a bit of fertilizer. Since I've just planted two baby raspberry plants, I don’t have much to do other than a few snips. New growth will come from the ground, but it's still too early to do anything. This week, I'm focusing on pruning my apple trees and other plants instead.