You are correct, such a large fruit load puts a strain on a plant. I don’t know what the leaf area/berry count ratio is for strawberries, if one has been established like there has been for other crops.

I do think the leaf count/berry number is an incomplete assessment. We also need to consider root system size and vigor, stem size, and photosynthetic efficiency in the leaves.

In grape pruning for example, the number of eye buds to keep is sometimes determined by weighing the pruned material from each vine, since the quantity of above ground biomass compares to the quantity of below grow root system. When their is a large quantity of prunings/roots more buds are kept.

It is also possible to have two identically sized leaves, and have one produce three times more sugar than the other because of nutritional differences.

From a hormonal perspective, we often observe that crops with smaller vegetative biomass are often the highest yielding crops, which also indicates that leaf area/fruit number isn’t a consistent indicator.

@Nina Meiers @bimbimbi