Growing strawberries is a great way to enjoy juicy and healthy pieces of this favorite fruit. Almost everybody likes strawberries, but only very few people grow them at home.
It’s a pity because growing strawberries at home is a very smart thing to do, you can enjoy much more nutritious and healthy strawberries at the same time as reducing waste and help the environment. Here are a few tips to help you get the best results when growing strawberries.
Table of Contents
Types of strawberries differ in how they respond to the length of the day. This affects both runner and berry production.
June bearers, everbearers, and day-neutral bearers are the three types of strawberries. Additionally, there are a number of varieties and cultivars in each bearing category.
Although these strawberry plants flower in early spring, they are spurred into doing this by buds which were formed in the fall, when days were shorter (less than 10 hours of daylight).
In order to form the buds however, these plants must have a full set of leaves during September and November. June bearers generally produce more strawberries, but often the berries are lost because of late frosts. June bearers are adapted to warmer areas.
Some June bearing cultivars include:
Long days (over 12 hours of daylight) stimulate everbearers to bud and then bloom. Usually, they will produce two crops: one in fall and another in spring. Spring crops are usually less than June bearers.
However, if an everbearer loses its fruit because of a late spring frost, it will produce again in the fall. They do not do well in heat, so grow in colder or more moderate areas.
Some everbearing cultivars include:
These can bud and flower under any daylight conditions. If you want berries all spring, summer, and fall, then these are the plants to put in. However, they do much better in colder conditions. In fact, if temperatures go above 85F they will probably not flower or bud. They do well in temperatures between 35F and 70F.
Fruit and runners are produced at the same time among day neutrals. Since they often fruit even before they begin growing their root systems, they are good candidates for container gardening.
Some day-neutral cultivars include:
Each variety and cultivar has its own unique attributes. Check with your local agricultural or land grant college, extension service, master gardener association or local nurseries for more area-specific information about strawberries.
Preparing the bed is the first step to growing your own strawberries. Choose a sunny site (as strawberries must have at least 6 hours of sun a day), where peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, or potatoes have never been grown.
Create a bed of a size adequate to your needs; my 6 by 6 feet bed produces enough strawberries for a family of four. Your strawberry bed needs to be separate from the rest of your garden. Strawberries don’t share space well and will run over anything else in the bed. (Not to mention that they shoot runners all over the place, including into your lawn, if they get a chance!) For this reason, I grow my strawberries in a raised bed separated from the rest of the garden by landscape ties.
Creating a raised bed is also helpful to ensure adequate drainage. Double dig the soil down to at least 12 inches. Strawberries will grow in almost any garden soil (although they prefer a sandy loam), but the ground has to be nice and loose for good root production and to let the runners root. Then add lots of manure or compost and dig that in to enrich the soil.
The best time to bed new strawberries is in early spring. If you don’t have a kind friend to give you some, purchase strawberry plants at your local nursery. They’re usually sold in bundles of a dozen or so crowns.
Many ingenious ways have been devised by imaginative people who have little land area but who wish to have the fun and delightful rewards of growing strawberries.
For growing strawberries in a barrel, cut 2-inch holes in the bottom, and staggered around the sides of the barrel, about a foot apart horizontally and 8 inches vertically.
Fill the bottom with 6 inches of gravel, for drainage, then mix up a rich combination of compost and loam. Build up the soil in the barrel in layers, using a tin can with both ends removed to construct a central core of gravel, removing the can as each layer is built up.
Set in the plants as each layer reaches the hole depths, placing them inside the barrel, then working their foliage through the holes. When barrel is filled, add a few plants at the top.
Another clever way to make the most of a small area is by using a strawberry ring or pyramid- These rings will accommodate about 50 plants each. They may be purchased or fashioned of aluminum.
The largest ring is 6 feet in diameter, and the other two are successively smaller. Fill the first one with soil, place the second in position and fill it, then do the same with the smallest.
If you have a sunny location, you may grow strawberries in a window box. Plant everbearing varieties in any window box that receives eight or more hours of sun each day. Keep it well watered, pinch off any runners that appear, and you will get up to 200 berries from each plant.
These will need protection during the winter. In an extremely cold climate, the safest method of protection would be to move them into the cellar where they will be cool but the ground will not be frozen firmly. Don’t move them in until after several hard frosts.
You can plant berries in flowerpots — 6 inches wide or larger — and hang them from the porch railing, a trellis, or the back fence, using coat hangers bent into a round shape. When the runners appear, plant them in other soil-filled pots.
It will be necessary to make certain these are in a sunny spot, for maximum production of berries. In winter, remove the pots, placing them in the basement or garden house. Keep the soil moist during the winter.
Strawberries up a wall? It’s possible if you plant the climbing strawberry. This is an everbearer that will grow up to 5 feet tall and may be trained to grow on a fence or trellis. This strawberry plant grows best in cooler climates, with the mother plant bearing the first year and the daughters the second.
Another idea worth thinking about is a combination garden patch. Alternate rows of Junebearing strawberries with other favorite spring perennials such as asparagus and rhubarb. Dig the soil deep, incorporating plenty of chopped leaves, grass clippings, or other organic material.
Asparagus and rhubarb roots are available from most nurseries selling strawberries. Plant them according to directions and you soon will be enjoying asparagus souffle and Grandmother’s favorite — strawberry-rhubarb pie
Pay close attention to positioning your strawberries when you plant them; they have to be set just right with the soil just covering the tops of the roots, but not the crowns.
How you position them in the bed will depend on which planting scheme you’ve decided to use. The experts recommend planting strawberries in matted rows, spaced-rows, or hills, depending on which type of strawberries you’re growing and the size of your bed. Remember when you’re choosing a planting system that the higher the density, the fewer and smaller fruit you’ll have.
The main strawberry bed chore (other than picking the berries) will be weeding; you must keep your strawberry bed weed-free.
To avoid verticillium wilt, don’t plant strawberries in any soil that once grew host plants for the disease (potatoes, eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes. ) A soil-borne fungus that attacks strawberry plants, verticillium wilt will kill the plants and has no known treatment once it is introduced into the soil.
Strawberries will grow best in well-prepared soil that is high in organic matter.
Don’t plant on land where persistent weeds such as quackgrass, purslane, and chickweed are abundant.
Ideally, soil preparations will begin from one to three years before the soil is used for strawberries. The chief aim will be to enrich the soil with as much organic matter as possible.
If cultivation the previous year included seedbed preparation, cultivation, and either turning under a green manure crop or adding stable manure, only harrowing or tilling is needed to prepare the soil for the strawberry plants to mature about 30 days after blooming. In warm weather, they will mature more rapidly.
If these were not included, at least one year of advance preparation is necessary. Plant a green manure crop or add stable manure. If the soil is deficient in organic matter, two green manure crops are recommended.
Recommendations for adding manure call for as much as 2 bushels per 100 square feet. In family-sized gardens of one-quarter acre, the gardener can add as much as 1 to 2 tons of the more potent hog and poultry manure, and four times that amount of horse and cow manure. It should be applied in the fall and turned under.
The strawberry is a forgiving plant and will grow in widely different soils, with varying amounts of organic matter. For the strawberry crop, you’ll be able to boast about, careful preparation of the soil and the addition of organic matter in large amounts are essential.
There are many ways to build up the amount of organic material in your soil. Add compost, or leaves, or grass clippings, or leftover vegetables and other garden refuse. Worked into your soil, all of them will do wonders for it.
We think the easiest way to get this material into your soil is by raising green manures and turning them under. In this way, you can add hundreds of pounds, and at just the right stage of growth to do the soil the most good.
Plan a year ahead where you will put your strawberry bed and then plan how you will use green manures. You might, a year before you raise strawberries, start out with peas or beans or some other legume in the space. Those legumes are good in that they help in taking nitrogen from the air and putting it into the soil. They are good to eat, too. And the plants are ideal for turning under.
After you harvest that crop, till under the pea vines or bean plants. Wait for about a week or 10 days. Then sow buckwheat. In the fall, this will reach full maturity. Till it under, making certain you do this before the buckwheat is ready to harvest.
I’ve always considered mulching one of the most important operations in caring for a strawberry bed. It’s especially important in northern sections as winter protection
The crowns of any plants that remain unprotected are often severely injured by low winter temperatures. This becomes noticeable the following spring, evidenced by weak growth and reddish foliage.
Eventually, when the berries ripen, the plants may wilt and collapse. Mulching will also prevent the plants from being heaved out of the ground as the result of a hard freeze and eventual thawing of the earth.
Mulching keeps down weeds, keeps the berries clean, and conserves moisture during the growing season.
It prevents infecting organisms in soil from splashing up on plants during rains. Also, raindrops splashing on bare soil detach particles that are carried away by surface water — and good, organic soil should not be lost.
What you will use for your mulch is not as important as the fact that it is being used. Many materials will serve. Small-grain straws and marsh hay are among the best mulching materials, but there are others that are satisfactory.
You may use pine needles, ferns, composted manure, hay, Sudan grass, mixtures of kafir and sorghum fodders, and mixtures of spring oats, straw, and sorghum fodders.
If Sudan grass, kafir, or sorghum is used, it is well to run it first through a hay crusher. Crushing allows the material to dry rapidly and therefore reduces the risk of moldy or rotten mulch.
If you want to use black plastic mulch, spread it across the entire row, then anchor it by burying the edges in soil. Cut small slits where the plants bulge up in the plastic and carefully work the foliage through the slit. Runners will be put out by the mother plant. You can select the healthiest, cut small slits under them, and push them down into the soil.
If you mulch your plants well, you will have less work in the second season. You will have eliminated the need for cultivation, and any weeds that appear can be pulled easily by hand.
Well-cared-for strawberry plants produce baskets full of big, juicy strawberries for three to five years. As the plants get older, they produce smaller strawberries. Buying new strawberry plants makes intuitive sense, but is unnecessary.
Moving strawberry plants to a new location rejuvenates and causes them to produce as if they were young again. Some gardeners prefer the “zig-zag” method of tending strawberry plants. They keep at least two strawberry patch locations, Patch A and Patch B.
Every year or two the gardeners dig up both patches. They plant the strawberries from Patch A into Patch B, and the strawberries from Patch B into Patch A. This ensures a prolific harvest of big, sweet, juicy strawberries every year and for no additional cost.
It is normal for strawberry plants gradually to become hardier in the autumn, so that by winter they can stand colder temperatures. However, if a sudden cold snap with temperatures lower than about 20° occurs before the plants have time to do this, they may be severely damaged.
Temperatures of 15°F or lower often kill unhardened plants.
Plants also may be killed if alternate freezing and thawing of soil heaves the plants out of the ground, breaking their roots. Mulching the plants is the best protection against these dangers. But don’t apply the mulch too soon or the plants will not develop hardiness, thus increasing the danger of winter injury.
As soon as a temperature of 20°F or lower has occurred, the plants will have become hardened. This is the time to apply the mulch. Use a loose organic material such as wheat straw. I do not like to use leaves because of their tendency to pack.
In northern states, cover the plants with 3 or 4 inches of the mulch. In the South, a lighter mulch may be applied. It can be thin enough so that an occasional leaf protrudes.
In the spring, rake all but a light covering of mulch into the alleys between the rows. This should be done as soon as new strawberry leaves begin to grow. Later, if necessary, the mulch can also be used to cover the plants temporarily during cold nights to protect the blossoms from frost injury.
Here are three ways to avoid frost damage if frosts occur during the spring blossoming period:
If the planting was mulched during the winter, and the mulch was raked into the alleys in the spring, simply rake it back over the plants if a frost is feared. This is an easy and relatively safe way to avoid blossom damage
For sprinkler protection, heads that produce a mist rather than a heavy stream of water are ideal.
Heating is the third possibility but it is generally practical only for large planting. It is less effective than sprinkler irrigation. If heaters are used, 100 per acre will be needed when the temperature drops to 26°F.
Early spring is the best time to dig up and move strawberry plants. Gardeners must wait until the last frost is over and the ground is soft and workable. It is easiest to transplant strawberries while they are still small and before strawberry flowers begin to bloom.
Dig up strawberry plants with a four tine pitchfork. Push the tines deep into the soil next to the strawberry plants with one foot. Let the plants come up in large clumps of soil; this helps keep the roots intact.
Pick the plants up gently and allow soft dirt to fall away; brushing dirt off may rip the roots. A dug up the strawberry plant will have its green leaves, a thick central root, and many string-like extensions. The crown is the top of the thick root from which the green leaves emerge.
Dig shallow holes in which to replant strawberries. The strawberry plant will do best if the crown remains above ground, and the remainder of the root is covered with soil.
There is no need to pack the dirt tightly over the strawberries; on the contrary, pouring soil over the strawberries in shallow holes is all that is needed. The stringy “tentacles” of the strawberry plant will reach out and root and create new plants.
Strawberry plants do extremely well in raised beds. In order to incorporate the “zig-zag” method of maintaining healthy strawberry plants, build two strawberry patch raised beds.
This is the time we have been looking forward to — when we can enjoy the fruits of our labor, have plenty of delicious fresh strawberries to eat, make others into desserts, and freeze or can for future use.
Picking strawberries still is a hand job — even on large plantings. No machine presently available can remove berries from plants at the right degree of ripeness without injuring them. The most natural way to pick strawberries is not the best way.
That way is to grasp the berry and pull. This bruises the strawberry, and usually leaves the cap on the plant, opening the center of the fruit to spores of decay organisms. Fingers gradually get dirty and sticky using this method, and the dirt gets on the berries.
Instead, grasp the stem close to the cap, twist, and pull, leaving as short a stem as possible attached to the cap to avoid puncturing other strawberries and exposing them to rot. Don’t pile them high in the picking container; this will crush and damage them.
Strawberries should be harvested at the right stage of ripeness. Overripe berries are soft and easily injured in marketing, lose flavor, and don’t keep well. Immature berries lack both a full flavor and a fine appearance. Consider how you will use the berries as you pick them. If you must keep the fruit for a few days, pick it when it is pink rather than ripe red.
If berries are to be used or eaten immediately, they should reach full ripeness. Berries remain in this ideal condition for only one to three days, depending on the variety.
Weather conditions usually determine the frequency of picking. Berries ripen fast in warm weather and more slowly in cool weather. You should pick berries at least every four or five days.
Ideally, the gardener will pick every day, and reap the best flavor and the least loss from spoilage. While picking, the gardener should pick any spoiled berries, taking them from the row so they will not contaminate others.
Pick strawberries early in the day. They are firmer then and easier to handle than when picked in the heat of the day. Rains will not halt the ripening of the fruit, so it may be necessary to pick when the berries are wet. While this is not ideal, it usually will not cause serious difficulties. If picked berries are dirty, chill them for an hour or two, then wash them through one or two cold waters.
More than a dozen strawberry plant diseases can reduce the fruit harvest or even kill the strawberry patch. Stop these diseases without using chemical fungicides.
As if there weren’t enough insects and animals clamoring for the first juicy berries in the strawberry patch, strawberry plants are subject to several diseases as well. It’s no wonder, then, that conventionally grown strawberries are considered one of the “dirty dozen,” as they carry a large amount of toxic chemical residue from the field to our homes.
There are a few common problems, most can be treated with an easy fix. Identifying the problem may pose more difficulty than the treatment in some cases. Either way, there is hope for a bountiful crop of sweet and juicy strawberries.
Strawberry plants require a soil that is slightly acidic, with a pH of 6.2 being ideal. If the soil is too alkaline, strawberries can exhibit a problem called alkali yellows. This causes the plant to be unable to absorb iron or manganese from the soil, which affects chlorophyll production. The diseased plants will have yellow or variegated yellow and green leaves. Over time, this reduces the vigor of the strawberry patch.
Gardeners who observe symptoms of alkali yellows should test the soil pH. If the soil is too alkaline, acidify it naturally by adding organic matter like compost or well-rotted manure whenever possible. Plant the strawberry patch away from concrete patios, as concrete releases lime into the soil, increasing its alkalinity.
Common leaf spot is a fungal disease encouraged by moist conditions and warm temperatures. Affected plants have grey or white speckles across the leaves, and fruit can be afflicted with leathery dark spots.
Cultural control methods for preventing leaf spot include adequate spacing of plants in an open, breezy area that receives eight hours of full sun. Gardeners should also irrigate strawberry plants in the morning, using drip irrigation to allow leaves to stay dry. ‘Earlibelle’ and ‘Titan’ strawberry varieties are very resistant to leaf spot.
Powdery mildew on strawberries has the same effect as it does on other flowering plants and vegetables, causing a gray fuzzy growth on leaves that stunts the plant. Gardeners can use Safer Garden Fungicide on plants, which is a sulfur-based product.
However, this spray can burn plants if applied to plants when temperatures exceed 85 degrees F. Gardeners can also look for potassium bicarbonate based spray, such as GreenCure.
This is a fungus that is common in all soils. It causes leaves of the strawberry plant to dry out. It starts around the edges of the leaves and then extends to between the veins. New leaves are stunted. The best solution for Verticillium wilt is to use strawberry plants that are resistant to it.
High humidity and little or no air movement around the leaves of the plants can create conditions favorable for gray mold fungus. The mold spreads through spores, and leaves, fruit, and even flowers will become infected if they touch the ground or come in contact with an infected part.
Prune out leaves if the foliage becomes too heavy and restricts airflow. Use nitrogen fertilizer, but only after spring harvest. Mulch will also help keep the plant leaves, fruit and stems separated from the ground.
This is also a fungal disease that is carried in the soil. It causes a reduction in fruit production and generally weaker, less robust plants. Let alone, it will eventually cause root rot. Rotating crops, and using a balanced, organic fertilizer help control this disease.
If your soil is heavy and poorly drained, the chances are greater that the red stele is present. Symptoms are the inner core of roots turn red, and leaves are off-color. Plants infected with red stele will quickly die during hot summers. Add organic compost and sand to the soil to allow it to drain more easily.
More than 30 viruses affect strawberry plants, so identification of the particular virus isn’t as important as prevention. Generally, strawberries affected with a virus appear stunted, and plant death eventually occurs.
Gardeners can get the strawberry patch off to a healthy start by planting virus-resistant varieties, such as ‘Sumas’ and ‘Northwest.’ Controlling aphids is critical to preventing strawberry viruses, as these sucking insects act as a vector for these diseases.
Release ladybugs in the spring when aphids are most problematic, and encourage the lacewing population in the garden with nectar-rich flowers.
Typically from not getting enough water. Strawberries need one to two inches of water a week. Depending on humidity levels and wind drying out the bed, they may need more.
Insects and birds will both cause this damage to the plant. Inexpensive netting can be placed over the bed to prevent birds from eating the fruit. There are a number of commercial and organic pesticides that can be used to control insects.
Yellowing leaves can be caused by too much water, high alkalinity or high salinity in the soil. Red leaves can be caused by nematodes if other symptoms such as small fruit with fewer fruit on the plant, wilting leaves and fewer runners being produced. Adjusting watering and soil testing will treat yellow leaves.
Nematodes are a little trickier to fix. Most likely it would be more feasible to have the plants destroyed. If nematodes have been diagnosed positively, the strawberry bed will have to be moved to another location completely with new plants being planted.
Verticillium wilt is a fungus in the soil that will cause this. Don’t plant strawberries in a patch that has had tomatoes, potatoes, peppers or eggplant as these are plants that commonly harbor the fungus. Use disease-free plants, to begin with. There are also some disease-resistant varieties.
Lots of big healthy leaves but little flowering. Over-fertilizing will cause the plants to grow big and healthy but will not help the flowering process.
Excessive wind directly on the plants will cause spots on the leaves and stems of the plant. A barrier to protect the bed may be needed in very windy locations.
Fruit doesn’t turn red but stays pinkish-grey and is soft. The fruit is getting a sunburn. Plant the bed in a partially shaded area or use an umbrella or canopy to shade.
This is not an extensive list of problems with strawberry plants, but these are common problems that can occur in the strawberry bed.
In some cases like nematodes and Verticillium wilt, it would be a good idea to have the plants or the bed tested before destroying an entire bed. It could be something much simpler and less drastic like a soil deficiency that can be easily remedied. Taking care to make the plants happy will ensure a bountiful harvest of delicious strawberries.
The larva of the June beetle (Phyllophaga crinita) is a white grub with brown, reddish-brown or black head about three-quarters of an inch long. Their bodies are “c”shaped. They feed on the roots of strawberries, generally starting with the weaker plants.
These are close relatives of spiders and there area number of genus and species. These are tiny arthropods, just barely visible to the human eye. They can heavily populate the leaves of strawberry plants. A good hard spray of water can dislodge them.
If they are dislodged from a leaf and are sent to the ground, since they are so small, it takes them a long, long time to re-ascend to the leaf. Even though the water doesn’t kill them, it seriously discourages them.
These animals love to dwell in organic mulches. Use organic baits (either those commercially produced or homemade baits such as jar caps filled with beer) to attract and kill these animals.
These are microscopic worms that can cause plants to become stunted. There are organic controls available to kill nematodes. In sandy soils, the dagger nematode (Xiphinema Americanum) is mostly responsible for plant stunting. Adding organic matter should have some effect on these animals.
These are found anywhere strawberries are grown.
Adults are light to dark brown, wide oval, about 1/8″ long, and have 3 sections. They have 3 or 4 generations per season. Adult beetles overwinter in woodlots and protected areas. When strawberries ripen, the beetles move in to feed and reproduce. Larvae develop inside damaged fruit and look like your average grub worm.
Beetles tunnel into ripe fruit. For shelter and protection, they favor the part of the fruit that is in contact with the soil. They also feed on other fruits, vegetables, and nuts especially damaged or fallen ones. They also like roadside stand fruit.
The beetles produce small holes throughout the fruit.
Controls include a parasitic wasp which lays it’s eggs in the larvae of the sap beetle. The wasps scientific name is Brachyserphus abruptus.
Other controls are whole wheat bread dough used as a bait into any kind of beetle trap. Sap beetles can’t resist the aroma of wheat bread dough. Put a lump of dough in a quart jar capped with a funnel pointing inward and sink it in the ground at the edge of your strawberry patch. Shade the trap and replace the dough as it dries out. Use 12 traps per acre of berries. Dispose of captured beeles regularly by dumping them into soapy water. the beeles are also attracted to overripe, damaged berries, so remove these quickly from the garden or use as bait.
Very similar to the strawberry sap beetle in looks. They are brown and velvety with short, yellow hairs on the underside. Their larvae are similar to grubs but are creamy beige and have bumps instead of segmentation type ridges. (These beetles are those that fly toward the light at night and cling to your screems and light poles.)
These beetles lay eggs in the soil in weedy areas in summer. The larvae travel deep into the soil during cold months and come back close to the surface to pupate in late spring. Adults being to emerge in early summer, first changin their color from whitish to brown.
Larvae feed on young roots and decaying plant material in the soil. Adult beetles feed on boxelder, butterfly bush, Japanese barberry, garden roses, sumac, viburnum, asters, chrysanthemum, dahlias, goldenrod, strawflowers, and foliage of strawberries, carrots, beets, eggplants, peppers, turnips and peach and cherry trees.
These pests can be very naughty especially in large numbers. The larvae can decimate lawns and berry patches and kill small plants by eating their roots. Adults damage flowers. They are very similar to Japanese Beetles and European chafers. They were brought to the east coast in error through nursery stock from Japan and other Asian countries. They feed along the margin of leaves or consume entire leaves. Some people mistake the damage for slugs.
Controls include overwatering. Dry conditions help kill eggs, hence the lack of beetles in the dry western states. Do not apply pesticides to the soil because they kill naturally occurring milky spore disease organisms that can infect the beetle larvae and control them. You can apply beneficial nematodes to control the grub stage. Use insecticidal soap against adults. I prefer organic methods not chemicals so look for those instead.
Most homeowners have probably spent hours looking at the different types of garden seeders. You may have even come across…
When it comes to vehicle lovers, cleaning their cars on a regular basis is essential to maintaining the paint job's…
Gas chainsaws are the perfect tool for a variety of outdoor tasks, including chopping up logs for firewood, clearing brush…
A home can be a daunting project, one that takes some time and energy to maintain. With hard work, determination,…
Today ginger is grown all over tropical and subtropical regions in Asia, in parts of Africa and South America, and…
Onions are one of the most popular vegetables in the world, and growing onions is a snap in the home…