Hello, I'm somewhat new to harvesting strawberries. I recently planted about 30 plants. Since we have a fairly small backyard I wanted to try a planter of sorts. I ended up using a pvc planter. I mixed some Texas earth with some packaged topsoil and a little bit of manure. The plants look pretty healthy from my perspective. The reason I'm here though is the plants are already producing very small, shriveled up berries. These are new plants, should I be clipping these back and not worry about it? I don't know if maybe they need more water, maybe less sun as the the Texas heat is pretty hot. I planted two different types, both being a June bearing. I'm attaching a pic of them also if anybody might be able to offer some suggestions. Thanks!

I suspect they need more water. I would fertilize also; they look a little peaked.

Also they are very small plants to be producing berries already. It's probably a sign of stress. But full sun is really what you need to produce berries, you will just have to water more if the weather is hot. Feel the temperature of the pvc tube and if it is hot when it's in the sun, maybe try wrapping it with foil, or painting it white to keep it cooler?

I would remove the berries, water more, fertilize and grow a big, bushy plant that will produce normal size berries. The leaves should be twice that size, and darker green than that, and each plant should be 10in. or a foot tall and wide, with many more leaves than that before they are ready to bloom and produce.

Your planter idea is clever, but I'm thinking not really big enough for the plants to develop a healthy root system.