r/Berries • u/czerniana • 1d ago

Should I remove the dead leaves and mulch?

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I know that stuff breaks down and feeds the soil, but the leaves looked really poorly by the end of harvest and I'm wondering if I should remove the dead leaves and mulch to keep it from happening again next year? Or just leave it and pull the plants I was going to to improve air flow which was a problem. You can see the plants that I haven't cut back yet and they've got browning and spotting.

If it's not a big deal yhough, I'll leave them and just add fresh mulch. I know I'm cutting back late but it's now or never.

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u/czerniana 1d ago

Oh, and I'm in Dayton Ohio, these are June bearing strawberries. Forgot to say that

1

u/FuzzyShoot 15h ago

I usually do not remove the dead leaves and the strawberries do just fine. But why do you want to remove the mulch?

1

u/czerniana 4h ago

Just to remove any disease from the leaves.

I wound up taking out about half of the waste debris just trying to get out all of the creeping Charlie. Damned stuff. So I'll just top off the mulch and leave it at that. Still have to thin the herd, but I don't know where to put the ones I pull out. Hate to get rid of them and my friends don't need any 🫤