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

[trunkman]

I keep hearing pinch the first blossoms and I'm always hesitant because I don't want 0 fruit the first year. Do I sacrifice the first yield to get a couple more fruits the next year on each plant? If I don't pinch the first year and get 20 strawberries per plant, and if I do pinch and get nothing the first year and the plant gives me 25 percent more the following year that means I get 25 berries the 2nd year from a pinched plant. If I don't pinch and get 20 the first year and get the same amount the second year that means I get 40 strawberries in two years compared to 25, so the math tells me not to pinch, what do you think? hmm

 

[thistlebloom]

Makes sense to me Trunkman, but I'm certainly not a strawberry expert. I'm more of a casual strawberry sticker-in-the-grounder, and I have not heard of whatever benefit blossom pinching does. I just plant'em and eat 'em.

 

[trunkman]

Makes sense to me Trunkman, but I'm certainly not a strawberry expert. I'm more of a casual strawberry sticker-in-the-grounder, and I have not heard of whatever benefit blossom pinching does. I just plant'em and eat 'em.

This is my first year with strawberries and that's what I want, strawberries now!!

 

[SweetMissDaisy]

This is my first year with strawberries and that's what I want, strawberries now!!

Or even yesterday would be great!
My first year too ... in fact, I'm still waiting for the plants to arrive! Ha!!

 

[luvsdirt]

Me, too....I'm a pick and eat 'em strawberry grower.....when there's ripe strawberries, we pick them. :tools

 

[DianeS]

Being the analytical thinker that I am, I experimented!

I planted strawberries and pinched half of them and didn't pinch the other half.

The pinched ones of course did not produce the first year, but have produced like wildfire since then! Easily twice what the non-pinched ones produce each year.

I've also learned, if I want the plants to spread, pinch the blossoms off that plant for one growing season. That plant will send out tendrils and start more plants. But the ones that carry strawberries don't send them out, or don't send out such long and strong ones and they often wither before they root.

So, pinching one year equals a much larger, stronger plant for the following years.

 

[trunkman]

Being the analytical thinker that I am, I experimented!

I planted strawberries and pinched half of them and didn't pinch the other half.

The pinched ones of course did not produce the first year, but have produced like wildfire since then! Easily twice what the non-pinched ones produce each year.

I've also learned, if I want the plants to spread, pinch the blossoms off that plant for one growing season. That plant will send out tendrils and start more plants. But the ones that carry strawberries don't send them out, or don't send out such long and strong ones and they often wither before they root.

So, pinching one year equals a much larger, stronger plant for the following years.

Hi DianeS, this being my first year planting strawberries I'm very excited about getting a good crop, so the first 20 plants I planted have been pinched because I have read on here but don't believe they produce twice what they would if not clipped. Maybe nature will prove me wrong, I'll see. Not trying to give advice, just voicing what makes sense to me. Almost hope I'm wrong but will at least enjoy a few tasty berries this season..

 

[thistlebloom]

Ummm... but strawberries only have a productive life of about 3 years anyway, so my opinion is to let them do their thing, and the third year root a new generation of runners.
Feel free to shoot holes in this!

 

[journey11]

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.

 

[thistlebloom]

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.