Growing Strawberries

Strawberries in your garden are probably the easiest fruit crop to grow and will give you wonderful harvests for a number of years. Strawberries, with the right growing conditions, should produce roughly a quart of berries for each plant every year.  Generally speaking there are three types of strawberry plants you can choose from: June Bearing, the Everbearing, and Day Neutral.

The June Bearing will produce a large, single crop each year in a two to three week period during the spring. These plants traditionally grow a single bloom of flowers with several runners. The June Bearing is classified into three groups: early, middle of the season and the late varieties. This class of strawberry generally gives us the largest fruits. Some June Bearing plants are: Allstar, a late season variety with mild, sweet flavor; Annapolis, a mid-season with large berries and good flavor and Chandler which shows adaptability to East Coast growing, especially the southern regions, with a high yield very large fruit.

The Everbearing berry variety produces two to three strawberry harvests sporadically during spring, summer, and fall. This variety does not send out very many runners. A couple of the Everbearing varieties are the Fort Laramie that produces wonderful quality fruit and the Quinault which produces quickly, in about 4 to 5 weeks, also with a good quality fruit. The Day Neutral strawberries will give you fruit throughout the entire growing season but also have few runners. These berries along with the Everbearing variety are perfect when you are limited on gardening space, but the fruit on both is generally smaller than the June Bearing strawberries. Some varieties of Day Neutral are; Seascape which is California bred that perform well throughout the country and Tribute and Tristar which are very popular in colder climates. The Tribute has large fruit and Tristar a better flavor.   

The best place to plant your strawberry patch is a sandy, well drained loam with a 5.8 to 6.2 pH level that receives full sun. They should not be planted in the same bed that you recently grew eggplant, tomatoes, peppers or potatoes; these crops carry a root rot fungus called verticillium which also can attack strawberries. They can be planted in spring when the soil is ready to be worked or in late fall. Select disease-free plants with large crowns and light-colored healthy roots. Mix into the soil about one to two inches of organic matter such as compost and keep the area weed free; strawberry plants do not like to compete with the weeds.

Raised beds are perfect for growing strawberries; they benefit from good drainage and light soil. They also help keep away unwanted grasses and weeds from creeping in and invading the bed. You can purchase raised beds as high as you want and also available are 2-tier or 3-tier strawberry beds. In order to produce juicy fruit they will need one to two inches of water per week. Prepare your raised beds with good quality potting mix that contains perlite for drainage. You can also mix in your own compost or purchase an inexpensive generic brand. An organic fertilizer should be mixed in at about a rate of one pound to every 100 square feet.

Planting and caring for your strawberry patch is quite easy. Just plant them in the ground making sure not to bury the root crown of the plant. They will grow and spread with several runners that will run across the soil depending on the type of plant you purchase. They need to be watered on a regular basis and you should remove any dead leaves. The only problems you should have are with slugs if you have your patch on the ground; use crushed eggshells for mulch, the slugs cannot move across them. The other problem would be from the birds eating your crop before you do. Garden netting can be purchased from your local nursery that can be spread over the plants.

You should place your plants at least 12 inches apart. During the first year pinch off any flowers, this way they will be able to develop to a full potential. The second year is when you can start harvesting your fruit. The June Bearing strawberry sends out many runners which are young plants that will root, but the Everbearing and Day Neutral do not send out as many. Whichever variety you plant be sure to thin out most of the runners or you will end up with a jungle of plants that will not do very well. You always want to produce good quality fruit from your patch of strawberries.