Strawberry plants- what is the problem with them, can anyone advise, please?

Pests, saw fly or other pests, get rid of the dead leaves to clear the insects, spray the plants

I'd suspect a pest eating the leaves.

Sounds like some sort of mite. I expect that there is an organic way of controlling them, other than spraying.

Could be flea bottles in the soil, they’re very prevalent this year, I’d change the soil.

It’s been a poor year for strawberries, all round. Weakened by the hot weather there are susceptible to many things. The drought has b meant that the berries which have survived are small and not juicy.
They recommend replacing the plants every 3 or 4 years as they do begin to produce smaller fruits. This can be done by planting up the little runners as you go along. The runner plantlets don’t usually produce fruit in their first year.

Not a poor year here in Derbyshire, I have eaten strawberries for breakfast, lunch, tea and supper (given loads away) and they were delicious. Once they start flowering, I cover them with netting and sprinkle slug pellets to stop the slugs eating them then I almost never water them so the slug pellets keep active. The plants are suffering now, they are dry and crunchy but have taken some runners off and put them in water to root and then plant a bit later on. If I had to buy strawberries from a shop, I just wouldnt bother. I also freeze some for later in the year to eat with ice-cream. I am not overly keen on frozen/defrosted strawberries but at least I know that they were originally fresh.

My strawberries were fantastic, but long ago over
Your plants have been eaten by a pest of some kind Did you put straw round them that keeps some creepy crawlies off

I presume you have looked on the back of the leaves for any culprit
Back in Cheshire I used to grow all sorts of fruit in the open. No trouble strawberries raspberries black current gooseberries. Here in north wales when we moved in an elderly guy told up you will grow nothing if not ln a fruit cage. Apart from black currents he was absolutely correct

The birds ate 90% of my loganberries this year. But it's been a bit of a miserable year for them with the feeding ban, & the heat, so I hope they enjoyed them.

Wintersday, how many plants do you have, and what variety (if you know it).

I have only two plants in pots that give me a few berries per day, which are a treat while doing gardening, but certainly not enough for dessert! I may ramp up production next year by planting more and paying a bit more attention to the variety of the plants.

I do have lots of blueberries, though!

Yes, I did try to check the back of the leaves, at dusk, but couldn't see anything. So I looked it up on google, and it suggested what to buy to eliminate them, so I did, and that didn't seem to work. Maybe by then it was too late? So was unsure if I was barking up the wrong tree, but I see many of you suggest sawfly or similar, as google suggested. So no strawberries for me, once these had taken hold (though a few up to that point), and I wondered if I'd get the same next year, wondered if I may as well give up! Or whether it was worth trying again and treating straight away?