Strawberry plants are herbaceous perennials, meaning they naturally live for more than two years and return annually after dormancy. In gardening, a perennial does not require replanting each season, surviving winter to produce new growth and fruit the following spring. Although botanically perennial, their practical lifespan often leads gardeners to treat some varieties as short-lived perennials or even annuals for maximum harvest efficiency.
How the Strawberry Plant Survives Winter
The survival of the strawberry plant during cold periods centers on a specialized anatomical feature called the crown. This crown is a short, compressed stem structure that sits just at the soil line and is the true perennial part of the plant. It serves as the main storage site for the plant’s energy reserves, accumulating starches and sugars throughout the previous growing season.
As temperatures drop, the above-ground leaves die back, but the crown remains alive and enters dormancy. Within this structure are the growth buds that will produce the following season’s leaves and flower stalks. The crown tissue has natural cold tolerance, but exposure below 15°F can cause fatal damage if the plant is unprotected.
The plant prepares for cold through cold acclimation, increasing soluble carbohydrates within the crown cells to lower the freezing point. This adaptation prevents damaging ice crystals from forming. The plant needs a chilling period, often 200 to 300 hours below 45°F, to properly harden off and ensure robust fruit production when growth resumes.
Categorizing Strawberry Varieties by Lifespan
The practical lifespan of a strawberry plant is influenced by its cultivation type, which dictates its fruiting habit and energy expenditure. The three main types are June-bearing, Everbearing, and Day-neutral, each offering a different productive cycle.
June-Bearing
June-bearing strawberries are the most traditional type, producing one large, concentrated harvest over a two- to three-week period in late spring or early summer. These varieties are often grown in a matted row system and remain highly productive for three to five years. After this period, the patch usually requires renovation or replacement due to declining yield.
Everbearing
Everbearing varieties produce two smaller crops during the season: one in late spring and a second in late summer or early fall. These plants produce fewer runners than June-bearing types, focusing energy on crown development for multiple fruiting cycles. Their productive life is shorter, and they are typically replaced every two to three years for best results.
Day-Neutral
Day-neutral strawberries are not influenced by daylight hours, allowing them to fruit continuously throughout the growing season. Production slows during mid-summer heat but resumes as temperatures cool, providing berries until the first hard frost. Since they expend so much energy on continuous fruiting, they are often the shortest-lived, frequently treated as annuals and replaced every one to two years.
Maintaining Productive Strawberry Plants Year After Year
To keep a strawberry patch productive for multiple seasons, gardeners must actively manage the plant’s growth habits, particularly with June-bearing varieties.
Managing Runners
A primary task is managing runners, which are horizontal stems that emerge from the main plant to create new daughter plants. Allowing too many runners to root drains energy from the mother plant, resulting in smaller fruit and lower yields the following year. Gardeners remove most runners to focus the plant’s energy on developing a strong crown for the next season.
They only allow a few runners to root if they intend to expand or replace older plants. After the main harvest, bed renovation is performed to rejuvenate the patch. This involves mowing or cutting the foliage back to one or two inches above the crown, followed by narrowing the rows and thinning out older plants.
Winter Protection
Protecting the crowns during winter is necessary to ensure perennial survival, especially in colder climates where temperatures regularly dip below freezing. Once the plants are dormant and the soil surface begins to freeze, a loose layer of clean straw mulch is applied.
The mulch should be four to six inches deep. This insulating layer helps moderate the soil temperature, preventing freeze-thaw cycles that can heave the crown out of the ground. It also protects the delicate flower buds from fatal damage.