Growing strawberries

Strawberry Growing Tips

Growing strawberries is a popular homeowner garden project. Strawberries are the first fruit to harvest, usually available by mid spring. The basics of how to grow strawberries is straight forward for the accomplished gardener but for the beginning gardener planting strawberries can be a little tricky if you are going to have a successful crop. Growing strawberries is one of the most popular homegrown fruits for most gardeners. Growing strawberries means fresh berries, plump and red, for strawberry shortcake topped with a dollop of whipped cream. If this description makes your mouth water, just imagine the different ways you can use the strawberries you grow in your own garden.

Strawberry Plant Basics

1. There are three types of strawberry plants and different methods of how to plant strawberries. The different strawberry plants are: June Bearing, Everbearing and Day Neutral strawberries. June Bearing strawberries are plump, well-shaped and sweet, and are ready to be picked in mid- to late June. These are seasonal berries with only one large yield crop. Harvesting takes place over a three-week period.
2. Everbearing strawberries ripen in the spring, blossom again and ripen in late summer. These berries tend to be smaller in size, but still taste sweet and you get more than a single crop.
3. Day Neutral strawberry plants continue producing fruit throughout the growing season. Similar to Everbearing strawberry plants. They tend to be smaller, sometimes misshapen and produce fewer runners.

How to Plant Strawberry Plants

Gardening is all about location. Choosing the right location for planting strawberry plants will provide the best chance to produce plump berries with a high yield. Strawberry plants require at least six hours of full sunshine each day to grow to maturity. Select a well-drained location, preferably with sandy loam. The soil should have a pH level of 5.8 to 6.2 which will provide for a healthy level of acid/alkaline to grow strawberries. Make it easy on yourself and choose a spot for your strawberry patch that makes watering easy. Strawberries require frequent watering to ensure a healthy crop.

Be careful to select only healthy, disease-free plants from a reliable nursery or mail-order garden catalog. Thirty plants will keep a family of four supplied with delicious berries throughout the strawberry growing season and have plenty left over for making jam or freezing.

1. There are several methods for growing the luscious red berries. Grow strawberries in matted rows, hills or containers for those with limited space who want a few fresh strawberries.
2. Before planting, be sure to till the cleared soil. Fertilize using a ratio of 10-to-10-to-10 fertilizer after June Bearing harvest or second harvest of Everbearing and Day Neutral strawberries. Over fertilizing can result in a green leafy strawberry patch with few or no berries, so use caution. Mulch your strawberry patch using 2 inches of weed-free straw.
3. Provide one to two inches of water every week from the time plants begin blossoming through harvest.

Matted Rows

1. A strawberry plant that sends out a plethora of runners (June Bearing varieties) grow best when planted in a matted row. Set your plants 18 inches apart in rows with at least 4 to 4.5 feet apart. Dig a hole large enough to spread the roots out. Hill the hole and place the crown flush with the soil. Cover with dirt, leaving half the crown exposed. Pat the soil around the plant and give it a thorough watering. Move on to the next plant.
2. Pick off all blossoms, old leaves and runners. You will need to continue picking blossoms from the plants throughout the first year to ensure the energy goes toward establishing the plant and not producing berries. As the plant produces runners, train them to stay in the row. You will not have strawberries the first year, but the pay off the next is worth the wait.

Planting in Hills

1. Everbearing or Day Neutral varieties of strawberry plants grow best in hills. Create a raised bed by mounding the earth to about 8 inches high and 2 feet across. Set plants about 12 inches apart. Staggered rows work with approximately 2 feet between each row.
2. Unlike June Bearing strawberry plants, remove the runners from Everbearing plants to encourage fruit formation. Pluck off blossoms the first year until July. These plants work hard continually producing strawberries and become worn out. Treat Everbearing strawberries as annuals or plan to dig up and grow new plants every three years.

A strawberry bed in your garden makes an attractive ornamental ground cover as well as a patch for picking and eating. Decrease the plant stress and shock by planting on cool cloudy days. Do not water at night. Water your strawberry patch in the early mornings so the sun and breeze can dry the leaves before night falls. These strawberry growing tips will help you have a great strawberry patch for years to come. Enjoy your strawberries!