strawberries - prune?

[anasv]

I wound up growing strawberries sort of by accident. (I bought some seedlings from a company that ships in units of 6 due to the packing setup, so I filled in with strawberry seedlings.)

I didn't keep a record of what I bought, since these were an afterthought. Some are Sarian, I think there is at least one other kind in there.

They're in a very large planter. The first year they sort of did nothing. The second year they spread like crazy. Now it's winter and the stems and leaves are brown and dried out and several feet long.

Do I leave them? chop the stems off near the roots? or ? random web directions seem to say to cut them back, all the way to the roots?

Thanks.

[Galileo126]

1. In my experience...

Strawberries grew like a weed, with very little human intervention. (This was in Rhode Island, so I'm not sure what your local climate is like.) The plants always grew back after the winter freeze, and the plants were so pervasive that my dad eventually ripped them out of the ground. That sucked, because there's nothing like a strawberry on a hot summer's day.

Anyway, in my opinion, I say leave the plants alone and let nature so it's thing. Each year, the plants grew back with a vengence, like a weed.

[beac]

2. I don't think you need to do anything but I don't think pruning would hurt them.

I once threw two plants that I thought to be dead and gone into a back corner of the lot and they survived (sitting sideways with half their roots open to the air (they had been in pots) and regrew the next year. For all that they make such a tender and easily ruined fruit, the vines themselves are astoundingly hearty.

[anasv]

3. thanks I guess my question is

are the dried up stems alive? If not, I'll trim them off for tidiness.