They actually look pretty good for a fourth-year strawberry bed. Plenty of healthy green leaf, lots of flowers, and no obvious disaster signs from the photo. So, if you didn’t get time to replant, I wouldn’t worry too much — you should still get a crop.
That said, by year 4 strawberries often start to lose vigour, and the bed can get a bit congested. I’d treat this year as a “crop it, then renew it” year.
For now:
Keep the bed going and don’t disturb it while it’s flowering.
Give it a light feed — comfrey tea would be very suitable, or a gentle tomato/fruit feed.
Tuck straw, dry grass, woodchip-free leaf mould, or similar around the plants before the fruit starts swelling, to keep berries off wet soil.
Remove obvious weeds and grass from the edges so the strawberries aren’t competing too much.
Net later if birds start taking an interest.
After fruiting, I’d let the strongest runners root into pots or spare ground, then use those to make a refreshed bed for next year. You don’t have to replace everything at once — even replacing half the bed with young plants would probably improve things.
So my verdict: absolutely worth keeping for this season, and it looks like it’s trying hard. Fourth year or not, those flowers say “strawberries incoming.”
I want to know a good organic potion i can add to boost fruit production?Thought for a second
For strawberries at the flowering/fruiting stage, the best organic “potion” is something potash-rich rather than nitrogen-rich. You want to encourage flowers, fruit and flavour — not loads of soft leafy growth.
A good simple mix:
Strawberry fruiting feed
In a 10 litre watering can:
- 1 litre diluted comfrey tea — already diluted to a weak tea colour
- 9 litres water
- Optional: a small splash of seaweed feed if you have it
Water around the base of the plants, not over the flowers.
Use this once every 10–14 days while the plants are flowering and setting fruit.
Comfrey is especially good because it is relatively rich in potassium/potash, which supports flowering and fruiting. Seaweed is more of a trace-mineral and stress-support tonic, so I’d treat it as a helpful extra rather than the main feed.
I’d avoid chicken pellets at this stage unless the plants look genuinely hungry and pale. They are more nitrogen-heavy and can push leaf growth at the expense of fruit.
Also worth doing alongside the feed:
Scatter a little wood ash very lightly around the bed if you have clean, untreated wood ash — not too much, just a dusting — then water it in. That gives another potash boost. Don’t overdo it, especially if your soil is already alkaline.
My practical choice for your bed would be:
Comfrey tea now, mulch with straw/leaf mould/dry grass, then repeat the comfrey feed every couple of weeks until the berries are swelling.
Yes this is perfect.. a comfrey leaf mulchThought for a second
Yes — a comfrey leaf mulch is ideal for that strawberry bed.
I’d do it like this:
Pick a good handful or two of comfrey leaves, then chop or tear them up and lay them around the strawberry plants as a thin mulch. Keep the leaves around the plants rather than piled up against the crowns, because strawberries don’t like their crowns buried or kept soggy.
A good approach:
Comfrey leaves first, tucked between the plants.
Then add straw, dry grass clippings, or leaf mould over/around it to keep the fruit clean and slow the comfrey breaking down too quickly.
The comfrey will rot down and release potassium-rich goodness just where the strawberries need it, while the top mulch helps protect the berries from soil splash and damp.
I wouldn’t make it too thick — comfrey goes quite slimy as it decomposes. Think thin nourishing layer, not a heavy blanket. Then you can add more after fruiting, when the plants are recovering and making next year’s growth.
Our comfrey patch just gets better every year
That little comparison is a good hook for the post too — it turns the strawberry bed from “we didn’t get round to replanting” into a useful observation about how different crops behave.
The final angle is basically:
This is an older June-fruiting strawberry bed, encouraged with leaf mulch, seaweed, and comfrey, aiming for one good flush of lovely fruit rather than endless leafy growth.
That’s very much a From Plot to Pot post: practical, seasonal, slightly experimental, and based on what’s actually happening on the plot.
The comfrey tea i made is old and no longer smells so bad.. will it still be ok to use?Thought for 9s
Yes — it should still be OK to use, especially on established plants like strawberries, courgettes, potatoes or fruit bushes.
If the comfrey tea is old and has stopped smelling quite so evil, that usually means the most active fermentation stage has passed. It doesn’t mean it has become useless. It may be a bit weaker or less lively, but it should still contain dissolved nutrients from the comfrey leaves.
I’d use it like this:
Dilute it well — aim for weak tea colour. If in doubt, weaker is safer.
For strawberries in flower/fruit, water it around the soil at the base, not over the flowers or leaves. Once every couple of weeks is plenty.
I’d avoid using it if it has gone really nasty in a different way: thick mouldy scum, oily film, chemical smell, or anything that looks contaminated. But if it is just old, dark, earthy/pondy and less pongy than before, I’d use it.
For your post, you could say:
The comfrey tea I made earlier in the season has mellowed with age and no longer has quite the legendary pong. I’m taking that as a mercy rather than a warning sign. Diluted to the colour of weak tea, it should still be useful as a gentle potassium-rich feed around the strawberries while they are flowering and setting fruit.
And some fresh comfrey leaf mulch?Thought for a second
Yes — old comfrey tea plus a fresh comfrey leaf mulch sounds just right.
I’d do it in two stages:
First, water the strawberries with the old comfrey tea, well diluted to weak tea colour, around the base of the plants.
Then add a thin layer of fresh chopped comfrey leaves between the strawberry plants, keeping it away from the crowns. Don’t bury the centre of the plants.
For strawberries, I’d go gently:
Diluted comfrey tea now
Fresh comfrey leaf mulch between plants
Dry topping if available — straw, leaf mould, or dry grass clippings to stop the comfrey going slimy against the fruit
That gives you a slow-release feed from the fresh leaves and a quicker liquid boost from the tea, without overdoing nitrogen. Perfect for a June-fruiting bed trying to put its energy into one good crop.