Three years is about all you get before you have to rejuvenate a strawberry patch. After this year's fruiting is done, take out the weeds and then the mother strawberry plants and keep the daughter plants, the ones that have emerged on runners. You want to end up with a plant every 3 or 4 inches after thinning. This kind of renovation should be done every three or four years. It invigorates the remaining plants. An overcrowded bed just gives very small and hard to find fruit.

What variety of strawberry are you growing? Day-neutral types shouldn't be renovated. Those are just replaced every three years.

Steve

thanks for the response, I have no idea what type is in the bed, as it existed when i bought the home. (i get 1-2 week of fruit in the beginning of June) Now i need to figure out the mother's from the daughters. (honestly, have not much reading on growing strawberry)

Just thin and keep the younger more vigorous plants. If it is a June bearing variety it will respond well to this kind of rejuvenation.

Steve