Strawberry Mara des bois

Care Guide: Planting, Soil & Watering

Overview: Mara des Bois strawberry is a low, running perennial that grows best in full sun to part shade in rich, moist, slightly acidic soil. Mulch to keep the fruit clean and the soil evenly moist, and water consistently for the best crop.

Quick Care Requirements

Requirement	Ideal Condition
Planting Season	In spring to summer, after frost
Growth Rate	Fast
Soil Type	Rich, moist, well-drained soil high in organic matter
Soil pH	Slightly acidic (source notes it prefers slightly acid soil)
Water Need	Moderate to High — keep evenly moist

Planting & Establishment

• Best Planting Season: Plant in spring to summer once frost has passed and the soil has warmed.
• How to Plant:
  • Hole Preparation: Dig a hole to suit the shallow crown and spreading runners; leave room for it to spread as a ground cover.
  • Soil Amendments: Enrich the soil with compost and organic matter; a straw mulch keeps fruit off the soil and holds moisture.
  • Planting Depth: Set the crown exactly at soil level — buried crowns rot and exposed ones dry out — then firm and water in.
• Growth Speed & Expectations: Fast, quickly spreading by runners to form a fruiting carpet a few centimetres tall; this everbearing type fruits from summer into autumn.

Soil, Watering & Drainage Care

• Soil Mix & Drainage Needs: Rich, moisture-retentive but well-drained soil is ideal; steady moisture supports fruiting while good drainage prevents crown rot.
• Watering Schedule & Technique:
  • Young / Newly Planted: Keep the soil consistently moist while plants and runners establish.
  • Established: Water regularly, especially in flower and fruit, so the soil never dries out; mulch to conserve moisture.
  • Seasonal Adjustments: Water more in summer heat and fruiting; reduce in cool weather.

Growing in Pots, Balconies & Indoors

‘Mara des Bois’ is a compact, everbearing strawberry, 5-10 cm high, prized for its intense wild-strawberry aroma. It is not a deep-room houseplant, but it is superb in containers and can fruit on a very sunny windowsill, balcony or patio.

Quick Details

• Container Size: A pot, trough or hanging basket of about 3-10 L; strawberries have shallow roots
• Indoor Suitability: Not a deep-indoor plant, but a compact everbearer can fruit on a bright, sunny sill
• Best Spot: Full sun to part shade – the sunniest spot for the best crop
• Soil & Drainage: Rich but free-draining mix
• Watering in Pots: Average to generous – keep evenly moist while flowering and fruiting; pots dry fast

Indoors & On the Windowsill

• Not a deep-room plant: The grower marks it ‘No’ for indoors – strawberries need strong light to fruit well.
• Windowsill: On your brightest, sunniest sill with direct sun, this compact everbearer can flower and fruit indoors; poor light gives leaves but little fruit.
• Season: As an everbearer it crops over a long season – a sunny sill can extend picking into the cooler months.

On a Balcony or Patio

• Light & warmth: Give it the sunniest spot; baskets and troughs on a warm balcony crop heavily and keep the fruit off the ground.
• Watering: Small pots and baskets dry very fast – check daily in warm weather and keep the mix evenly moist for good fruit.

Choosing the Pot, Soil & Long-Term Care

• Pot & drainage: A pot, trough or basket with good holes; skip a standing water saucer to avoid root rot. Terracotta breathes and dries fast (good for succulents), while glazed or plastic holds moisture longer.
• Potting mix: A rich, free-draining mix – potting mix with added compost and a little perlite.
• Feeding: Feed with a high-potash (tomato) feed while flowering and fruiting; Potted plants exhaust their food faster because watering leaches nutrients, so feed lightly through the growing season – more often than plants in open ground.
• Refreshing: Replace tired plants and refresh the mix every year or two, potting on rooted runners for new stock.

Bloom & Flower Guide

Quick Details

• Bloom Season: Late spring through summer, and into autumn as an everbearer
• Flower Appearance: White, five-petalled flowers with a central boss of yellow stamens
• Edibility: The flowers are harmless but not eaten — the plant is grown for its aromatic berries

Detailed Blooming Overview

‘Mara des Bois’ is an everbearing strawberry with the perfume of a wild woodland berry. Its simple white flowers open over a long season, each one the start of a fruit.

Flower Characteristics

• White flowers with five petals and a central cluster of yellow stamens.
• Produced over a long period from late spring onward.

Bloom Care & Thinning

• Thinning: on newly planted runners, pinching off the first flush of flowers lets the plant build strength for a heavier later crop.
• Pollination: mainly by bees — good pollination gives well-formed, even berries.

Bloom Health & Protection

• Grey mould (Botrytis): can rot open blossoms in damp weather — airflow, removing affected flowers and a suitable fungicide help.
• Late frost: can blacken the centre of open flowers — covering plants on frosty nights protects the bloom.

Pruning, Training & Seasonal Maintenance

Mara des bois is a low, herbaceous, everbearing (repeat-flushing) strawberry with no woody framework, so its ‘pruning’ is really foliage and runner management rather than branch cutting. Because it produces flower trusses on new growth in repeated flushes from summer into autumn rather than in one single crop, maintenance is done lightly and continually – mainly right after each fruiting flush – instead of on one dormant-season cut. Done correctly it keeps the crown clean and productive; done wrong (cutting into the crown, or mowing it like a June-bearer) it can remove the very growth points setting the next flush.

Quick Pruning & Maintenance Specs

Pruning Tolerance	Low (foliage and runner management only, no woody cuts)
Primary Maintenance Window	After each fruiting flush (summer–autumn) plus a general autumn tidy
Typical Frequency	Light, ongoing through the growing season
Main Objective	Remove spent/diseased leaves, manage runner numbers, keep fruit clear of the soil
Young Plant Priority	Let the crown build leaf mass before allowing runners to root
Mature Plant Priority	Renew the leaf canopy after each flush; balance runner number against fruit size
Best Tool Type	Precision snips
Avoid Heavy Handling During	An active flowering/fruiting flush – cutting then removes the current crop

Pruning by Plant Age & Size

Newly Established

No cutting needed; let the young plant build its rosette of leaves before removing anything.

Young / Formative

Decide runner policy early: let a few runners root to produce new plants, or remove them promptly so the mother crown puts its energy into its own fruit. There is no branch/leader training since this is a low, crown-forming herbaceous plant.

Mature / Established

After each fruiting flush, remove tattered, shaded, or diseased lower leaves back to the crown, and continue thinning excess runners.

Seasonal Pruning Schedule

Post-Flush (After Each Fruiting Round)

Objective: renew the canopy and reduce disease pressure. Remove: spent flower stalks and old, shaded, or diseased leaves, cut at the petiole base. Do not remove: young unfurling leaves or developing flower trusses. Response: a fresh flush of leaves and, being everbearing, continued flower-truss production rather than a single annual crop.

Dormant/Winter

Objective: tidy the overwintering crown. Remove: dead or frost-damaged leaves. Do not remove: the crown itself, which holds next season’s growth points.

Flowering & Fruiting Wood

Unlike a woody fruit crop, Mara des bois flowers and fruits on the current season’s herbaceous growth in repeated flushes rather than on year-old wood, so leaf and runner cleanup between flushes does not sacrifice a future year’s crop – only cutting during an active flush removes fruit outright.

Special Growth to Remove

• Runners/stolons – this cultivar is propagated vegetatively by runners, so choose which daughters to keep rooted and remove the rest to avoid diverting energy from the mother plant’s fruit.
• Spent flower stalks after each flush.
• Old, shaded, or diseased leaves.

Container & Small-Space Pruning

In a pot or hanging basket, runners crowd the container much faster than in an open bed, so trim them more assertively to maintain airflow around the leaves and reduce the foliar disease risk that comes with congestion.

Tools

• Precision snips for all cuts – leaves, runners, and spent flower stalks are all soft tissue on a low herbaceous crown; loppers and saws are never needed.

Tool Hygiene & Disease Risk

Increased: strawberries are prone to foliar fungal issues (leaf spot, and gray mold/Botrytis on the fruit) that can be carried on cutting tools between plants in a bed. Clean tools between plants when removing visibly spotted or diseased leaves; routine hygiene is enough for ordinary leaf/runner trimming.

Cut Placement & Technique

Remove leaves at the base of the petiole where it meets the crown. Cut runners at their point of attachment to the mother crown, leaving any wanted rooted daughter plant in place.

Heavy Pruning & Rejuvenation

Not applicable in the woody sense. Unlike June-bearing strawberries, which some growers renovate by mowing all foliage off after the single harvest, an everbearing/day-neutral type like Mara des bois should not be mown down, since that removes crown tissue that is actively setting the next flush of flowers.

Post-Pruning Care

Keep mulch or straw under the crown after thinning leaves so ripening fruit stays off bare soil. Watch for slugs, especially where opened-up foliage increases fruit contact with mulch or soil.

Common Pruning Mistakes

• Mowing or hard-cutting the whole plant back as if it were a June-bearer, removing actively forming flower trusses.
• Leaving too many runners, which reduces the mother plant’s fruit size.
• Leaving diseased leaves in place instead of removing and disposing of them promptly.

When NOT to Prune

Avoid cutting during an active flowering or fruiting flush, and never cut into the central crown.

Recommended Tools (by task)

• precision_snips – the only tool this small herbaceous crown crop needs, for deadheading, leaf renewal, and runner removal.

Pruning Troubleshooting

Problem	Possible Cause	What to Check	Corrective Action
Small or fewer fruit	Too many runners left to root, diverting energy from the mother crown	Runner count around each crown	Sever and thin excess runners, keeping only wanted daughters
Fungal leaf or fruit spotting spreading through the bed	Diseased leaf debris left in place, or tools not cleaned between plants	Leaves for lesions before cutting	Remove and dispose of affected leaves promptly; wipe tools between plants
Reduced flowering after a cutback	Whole plant mowed or hard-cut like a June-bearer	Whether the crown itself was cut, not just old leaves	For this everbearing type, remove leaves individually and never mow the crown

Pests, Diseases & Troubleshooting

Overview: ‘Mara des Bois’ is a prized everbearing garden strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) famed for its intense wild-strawberry aroma; its long, repeat fruiting season means pest and rot pressure is spread across much of the growing year. Strawberries are low, soft-fruited perennials whose crowns, ripening berries and tender leaves attract a steady mix of chewing and sap-sucking pests, while their dense, ground-hugging canopy and constant moisture invite fruit and foliar rots. Success comes from an organic-first, prevention-led routine: keep berries off the soil, maintain airflow, rotate beds, remove old and diseased foliage, and reach for sprays only when monitoring shows real pressure.

Quick Troubleshooting Overview

Issue / Pest	Main Symptom	Primary Solution
Slugs & snails	Ragged holes in leaves and ripe berries, slime trails	Handpick at night, straw mulch, iron-phosphate bait, beer traps
Birds	Pecked or vanished ripening fruit	Netting or mesh cages over fruiting plants
Aphids	Curled shoots, sticky honeydew, sooty mould, virus spread	Blast off, encourage ladybirds, insecticidal soap
Grey mould (Botrytis)	Fuzzy grey rot on berries touching soil or each other	Airflow, straw mulch, remove infected fruit promptly
Powdery mildew	White coating and upward-curling leaf margins	Spacing, resistant types, sulphur or potassium-bicarbonate spray
Vine / root weevils	Notched leaf edges; wilting from root-eaten crowns	Beneficial nematodes, remove debris, rotate beds

Common Pests & Management

• Slugs & Snails (Deroceras and Cornu spp.):
  • Symptoms: Irregular holes chewed in leaves and, most damagingly, gouged cavities in ripe berries lying on the soil, with tell-tale silvery slime trails. Worst in wet weather and under dense foliage.
  • Prevention & Control: Mulch with clean straw to lift fruit off the ground and keep it dry; handpick after dark; set beer or yeast traps; encourage ground beetles, frogs and birds. Where pressure is high, use iron-phosphate pellets, which are safe around pets and wildlife.
• Birds:
  • Symptoms: Whole or half-eaten berries as they colour up; ripe fruit disappears overnight. Blackbirds and thrushes are the usual culprits.
  • Prevention & Control: Drape fine netting or build a simple mesh fruit cage as berries begin to blush; keep netting taut and off the ground so birds and hedgehogs are not trapped. Harvest promptly at ripeness.
• Aphids (Chaetosiphon fragaefolii and others):
  • Symptoms: Clusters on young leaves and flower stalks, curled distorted growth, sticky honeydew and sooty mould. Most serious as vectors of strawberry viruses that cause decline.
  • Prevention & Control: Inspect new growth regularly; dislodge with a water jet; conserve ladybirds, lacewings and hoverflies. Treat persistent colonies with insecticidal soap or a light horticultural oil, spraying in the evening to protect pollinators.
• Two-Spotted Spider Mite (Tetranychus urticae):
  • Symptoms: Fine pale stippling and bronzing of leaves, with delicate webbing on undersides in hot, dry spells; plants weaken and yields fall.
  • Prevention & Control: Raise humidity and avoid drought stress; hose down foliage; release predatory mites (Phytoseiulus) under cover. Use insecticidal soap or horticultural oil for heavy infestations.
• Strawberry & Vine Weevils (Otiorhynchus spp.):
  • Symptoms: Adults notch leaf margins at night; the real damage is from white C-shaped larvae eating roots and crowns, causing sudden wilting and collapse, especially in containers.
  • Prevention & Control: Drench soil with entomopathogenic nematodes (Heterorhabditis) in warm soil; clear leaf litter and old plants; rotate beds; renew container plants every few years.

Diseases & Fungal Issues

• Grey Mould (Botrytis cinerea):
  • Symptoms: Soft brown patches that rapidly grow a fuzzy grey mould, especially where berries touch soil, mulch or each other in humid weather; can rot flowers before fruit sets.
  • Treatment & Management: Improve airflow through spacing and deleafing; mulch to keep fruit dry; pick and bin infected berries at once; avoid overhead watering late in the day. Copper or a biological (Bacillus) fungicide helps in wet spells.
• Powdery Mildew (Podosphaera aphanis):
  • Symptoms: White powdery patches on leaf undersides with margins curling upward and reddening; flowers and young fruit may also be coated and distorted.
  • Treatment & Management: Choose resistant cultivars, space for airflow and avoid heavy nitrogen. Apply sulphur, potassium-bicarbonate or a milk-based spray at first sign, treating evenly on both leaf surfaces.
• Leaf Spot & Leaf Scorch (Mycosphaerella / Diplocarpon spp.):
  • Symptoms: Small purple flecks enlarging to grey-centred spots (leaf spot) or irregular purple blotches that merge and scorch whole leaves (leaf scorch), weakening the plant over time.
  • Treatment & Management: Remove and destroy old infected foliage after fruiting; improve airflow; avoid overhead irrigation; renovate matted rows. Copper fungicide can protect new growth under heavy pressure.
• Red Stele & Crown Rot (Phytophthora spp.):
  • Symptoms: Stunted, bluish, wilting plants; roots rot from the tip and the central core (stele) turns red-brown. Thrives in cold, waterlogged soils.
  • Treatment & Management: Plant in raised, free-draining beds; never overwater; use certified disease-free runners and resistant varieties; rotate away from infected ground for several years.
• Verticillium Wilt (Verticillium dahliae):
  • Symptoms: Outer leaves wilt, dry at the margins and collapse while inner leaves stay small; plants decline and may die, often after warm spells.
  • Treatment & Management: Avoid planting after tomatoes, potatoes or peppers; use resistant cultivars and clean stock; remove and destroy affected plants; practise long rotations.

Growing Difficulties & Abiotic Problems

• Fruit Rot from Soil Contact:
  • Cause & Symptoms: Berries resting on wet soil soften, discolour and rot before ripening, and stay gritty or mud-splashed.
  • Correction Strategy: Mulch generously with straw or use strawberry mats and slightly raised beds so fruit ripens clean and dry.
• Root Rot from Overwatering / Poor Drainage:
  • Cause & Symptoms: Waterlogged, heavy soils suffocate roots; plants yellow, wilt despite moist soil and crowns blacken.
  • Correction Strategy: Grow in free-draining raised beds or containers, water at the base and let the surface dry between waterings.
• Nutrient Chlorosis:
  • Cause & Symptoms: Yellowing between veins (iron/manganese on alkaline soils) or uniform paling (nitrogen shortage), with weak growth and small fruit.
  • Correction Strategy: Feed with a balanced fruit fertiliser, keep pH slightly acidic to neutral, and use chelated iron on alkaline ground.
• Poor Fruit Set / Sunburn:
  • Cause & Symptoms: Cold snaps or few pollinators cause misshapen berries; exposed fruit in fierce sun develops pale, hard sunscald patches.
  • Correction Strategy: Protect early flowers from frost, encourage pollinating insects, and let some leaf canopy shade the fruit during heatwaves.

What Helps — Products & Tools

For strawberries the core toolkit is organic and cultural: clean straw mulch or strawberry mats to keep fruit dry, bird netting or a fruit cage, iron-phosphate slug pellets and beer traps, insecticidal soap and light horticultural oil for aphids and mites, beneficial nematodes for weevils, and sulphur or potassium-bicarbonate for mildew with copper or a Bacillus biofungicide for grey mould and leaf spot in wet spells.

Propagation Guide

Mara des bois is propagated vegetatively — by rooting the runners (daughter plants) it sends out, or by dividing established crowns — since as a named hybrid cultivar it will not come true from seed. This is an easy, fast method that keeps the plant’s specific flavor and fruiting characteristics intact.

Quick Propagation Specs

Best Propagation Method	Runners (daughter plants)
Alternative Methods	Crown division
Propagation Difficulty	Easy
Seed True-to-Type	No – hybrid offspring vary
Vegetative True-to-Type	Yes
Best Propagation Season	Spring to summer

Division, Offsets, Pups & Suckers

Established, healthy crowns can be lifted and divided, ideally in spring or just after the fruiting season. Each division needs its own roots and at least one growing point (crown); trim off old or damaged leaves before replanting to reduce stress while it re-establishes, and keep new divisions consistently moist and mulched, as this plant prefers rich, moisture-retentive, slightly acid soil.

Runners & Stolons

Like other strawberries, Mara des bois produces runners that root readily where they touch the soil, or a small pot of soil placed underneath them. Leave the developing daughter plantlet attached to the mother plant until it has formed its own root system, then sever the runner and, if it was rooted into a separate pot, transplant it. Keep new plantlets and fruit off bare ground with mulch, in keeping with this plant’s general care needs.