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Strawberry growers commonly ask two questions around planting time.
The answer is “it depends…” Which, I acknowledge, is a highly unsatisfactory answer. Strawberries can be grown in so many production systems and timings that coming up with a single answer is too simplistic.
A recent study was reported from California–Initial Bare-root Crown Size and Early-season Flower Cluster Removal has Little Effect on Subsequent Plant Performance in Day-neutral Strawberry, by Mark Bolda. There are enough commonalities between the latitude and production system to draw parallels to parts of NZ. Monterey and Cabrillo were used, grown in soil on plastic-covered raised beds from bare root plants in Watsonville (latitude 36.9 North); Auckland is at latitude 36.8 South. Autumn planting is used in both systems; the planting date of the trial in California was the equivalent of southern hemisphere mid-May.
The California study ran for 2 years, and at planting the crown sizes were graded by crown diameter into smalls (<0.5cm), mediums (0.5-1.0cm) and larges (>1cm). The larger plants were the first daughters of the mothers in the nursery, while the smaller ones were produced later in the season. That large range of sizes is common for growers in California to receive.
Big crowns didn’t always win at early fruit production:
In the first year, the larger crowns did not produced more early fruit. In the second year, the biggest crowns produced more in the first month (equivalent to September in NZ), but had the same production after that. By the end of both seasons, all crown sizes had cumulatively yielded the same.
I think the equalizing factor here is that the long autumn/winter plant establishment period, before fruiting started, which allowed small crown to mostly catch up to the big ones. Five months had passed since planting when the first fruit were harvested. Certainly there are instances where large crown sizes at planting are advantageous, but I expect this is where quick production is desired, after a short plant establishment period.
Early season flower removal did not increase season-long yields:
Various studies in different varieties and locations over the years have sometimes shown that removing early flowers leads to larger fruit later, though results have been variable.
In this California study, they tested the effect of removing the early flowers (equivalent to removing flowers through August in NZ) on season long yield. Early flower removal is common practice in California, with the intention to promote vegetative growth that would theoretically lead to larger yield later on.
The researchers found, unsurprisingly, that removing early flowers lead to less harvest in the first two months of picking. In these day neutral varieties grown in California’s long (8 month) production season, however, this delayed start did not translate into higher yields overall. In fact, the season-long yields of all crown sizes and flower removal treatments were the same (within a variety). This means that early flower removal pushed the yield later, rather than increasing it over the long haul.
New Zealand strawberry growers do tend to remove early flowers for other reasons, besides the hope that the plant’s conserved energy will translate to higher later yields. The early fruit on short pedicels are often sitting in the soil, rather than onto the plastic, with the resulting poor fruit quality. Early flowers sometimes have problems with pollination/frost as well, leading to misshapen, unmarketable fruit. But it is unlikely that early season flower removal will increase overall yield.