Growing Strawberries

Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Strawberries

By Catherine Boeckmann
Strawberries
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If you plan to enter the world of growing fruit, strawberries are one of the easiest fruit to grow and great for beginners. Plus, homegrown strawberries are far more flavorful than what you’ll ever find in a grocery store. Why? The sugar in berries converts to starch soon after it’s picked. Learn more about growing strawberries in the home garden.  

The good news is that strawberries are relatively easy to grow if you keep them in a location that gets full sun.

Strawberry plants come in three types:

  • June-bearing varieties bear all at once usually over a period of three weeks. Day-length sensitive, these varieties produce buds in the autumn, flowers, and fruits the following June, and runners during the long days of summer. Although called “June-bearing” or “June-bearers,” these strawberries bear earlier than June in warmer climates.
     
  • Everbearing varieties produce a big crop in spring, produce lightly in the summer, and then bear another crop in late summer/fall. These varieties form buds during the long days of summer and the short days of autumn. The summer-formed buds flower and fruit in autumn, and the autumn-formed buds fruit the following spring. 
     
  • Day-Neutral varieties produce fruit continuously through the season until the first frost: Insensitive to day length, these varieties produce buds, fruits, and runners continuously if temperature remains between 35° and 85°F (1° to 30°C). Production is less than that of June-bearers.

For the home garden, we recommend June-bearers. Although you will have to wait a year for fruit harvesting, it will be well worth it.

Planting

When to Plant Strawberries

  • Plan to plant as soon as the ground can be worked in the spring. See your local frost dates.
  • Establish new plants each year to keep berry quality high each season. 
  • Buy disease-resistant plants from a reputable nursery, of a variety recommended in your area. Consult with the nursery you buy them from or with your state Cooperative Extension service for locally recommended varieties.

Spacing for Strawberries

Choosing and Preparing a Planting Site

  • Strawberry plants require 6-10 hours a day of direct sunlight, so choose your planting site accordingly.
  • Strawberries are tolerant of different soil types, although they prefer loam. Ideally, begin working in aged manure or compost a couple months before planting. If you have clay soil, generally mix in 4 inches or more of compost, and rake the clay soil into raised mounds to further improve drainage. If your soil is sandy, simply cultivate to remove weeds, and mix in a 1-inch layer of rich compost or rotted manure.
  • Soil pH should be between 5.5 and 7. If necessary, amend your soil in advance of planting. If soils in your area are naturally alkaline, it is best to grow strawberries in half-barrels or other large containers filled with compost-enriched potting soil.
  • The planting site must be well-drained. Raised beds are a particularly good option for strawberry plants.
  • Practice crop rotation for the most success. Do not plant in a site that recently had strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, or eggplant.

How to Plant Strawberries

  • Provide adequate space for sprawling. Set plants out 20 inches apart to leave room for runners and leave 4 feet between rows. Strawberries are sprawling plants. Seedlings will send out runners, or ‘daughter’ plants, which in turn will send out their own runners.
  • Roots shouldn’t be longer than 8 inches when plants are set out. Trim them if necessary.
  • Make planting holes deep and wide enough to accommodate the entire root system without bending it. However, don’t plant too deep! The roots should be covered, but the crown should be right at the soil surface. It is very important that you do NOT bury the crown (central growing bud) of the plant or it could rot! The leaves, flowers, and fruit must be exposed to light and fresh air. 
  • Water plants well at the time of planting.
  • It is also possible to grow strawberries from last year’s runners. See this video to find out how. 

Check out this video to learn more about how to plant and grow strawberries:

Care

How to Grow Strawberries

  • Keep the beds mulched to reduce water needs and weed invasion. Any type of mulch—from black plastic to pine straw to shredded leaves—will keep the soil moist and the plants clean. Read more about mulching.
  • Be diligent about weeding. Weed by hand, especially in the first months after planting.
  • Moisture is incredibly important due to shallow roots. Water adequately, about one inch per week. Strawberry plants need a lot of water when the runners and flowers are developing and again in the fall when the plants are mature.
  • Fertilize with all-purpose granules for strong growth. In warm weather, berries ripen about 30 days after blossoms are fertilized.
  • In the first year, pick off blossoms to discourage strawberry plants from fruiting. If not allowed to bear fruit, they will spend their food reserves on developing healthy roots. The yields will be much greater in the second year.
  • Eliminate daughter plants as needed. First and second generations produce higher yields. Try to keep daughter plants spaced about 10 inches apart.
  • Row covers are a good option for protecting blossoms and fruit from birds.

Strawberries. Photo by Yuriy S./Getty Images
Photo by Yuriy S./Getty Images

Winter Care of Strawberries

Strawberry plants are perennial. They are naturally cold hardy and will survive mildly freezing temperatures. So, if your area has mild winters, little care is needed.

In regions where the temperature drops into the low twenties, strawberries will be in their dormant stage. It’s best to provide some winter protection:

  • When the growing season is over, mow or cut foliage down to one inch. This can be done after the first couple of frosts, or when air temps reach 20°F (-6°C).
  • Mulch plants about 4 inches deep with straw, pine needles, or other organic material.
  • In even colder regions, more insulating mulch should be added.  
  • Natural precipitation should appropriately maintain sufficient soil moisture.  
  • Remove mulch in early spring, after danger of frost has passed.

Pests/Diseases

Pest-Beating Tips

  • Keeping beds weed-free and using a gritty mulch can deter slugs and bugs. Spread sand over the strawberry bed to deter slugs. (This also works well for lettuce.) Pine needles also foil slug and pill-bug damage.
  • For bigger bugs such as Japanese beetles, spray your plants with puréed garlic and neem seed oil. 
  • When birds threaten your strawberries, position balloons with scare-eyes above the beds and use reflective Mylar bird tape to deter them. 

Harvest/Storage

How to Harvest Strawberries

  • Fruit is typically ready for harvesting 4-6 weeks after blossoming.
  • Harvest only fully red (ripe) berries, and pick every three days.
  • Cut by the stem; do not pull the berry or you could damage the plant.
  • For June-bearer strawberries, the harvest will last up to 3 weeks. You should have an abundance of berries, depending on the variety.

How to Store Strawberries

  • Store unwashed berries in the refrigerator for 3–5 days.
  • Strawberries can be frozen whole for about 2 months.
  • Watch our video on How to Make Strawberry Preserves!

Strawberry Bed. Photo by Ben Shuchunke/Getty Images
Photo by Ben Shuchunke/Getty Images

Recommended Varieties

Try planting more than one variety. Each will respond differently to conditions, and you will have a range of different fruits to enjoy.

  • ‘Northeaster’ is best suited for the northeastern US and southeastern Canada. Fruit has strong flavor and aroma.
  • ‘Sable’ is hardy to zone 3, early season, great flavor.
  • ‘Primetime’ is a mild-flavored, disease-resistant variety, best adapted to the Mid-Atlantic.
  • ‘Cardinal’ is a good variety to try in the South.
  • ‘Camarosa’ is a good variety to try on the West Coast.
  • ‘Tristar’ is a day-neutral variety that’s very well-suited for hanging baskets.

Learn more about choosing and growing different strawberry varieties.

Wit & Wisdom

Why Are Strawberries Called Strawberries? 

One theory is that woodland pickers strung them on pieces of straw to carry them to market. Others believe that the surface of the fruit looks as if it’s embedded with bits of straw. Still others think that the name comes from the Old English word meaning “to strew,” because the plant’s runners stray in all directions and look as if they are strewn on the ground.

The June full Moon is called the Strawberry Moon because when this Moon appeared, it signaled that it was time to start gathering ripening fruit.

Recipes

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Reader Comments

Leave a Comment

Strawberries!

Submitted by Whitney Maybelle on May 21, 2020 - 5:26pm

I love strawberries, when I lived in CA I used to go to California strawberries dot com all the time for the best recipes ever! I am setting up my garden to do mostly strawberries. Thanks for the amazing information.

Strawberries!

Submitted by Whitney Maybelle on May 21, 2020 - 5:26pm

I love strawberries, when I lived in CA I used to go to California strawberries dot com all the time for the best recipes ever! I am setting up my garden to do mostly strawberries. Thanks for the amazing information.

Strawberries!

Submitted by Whitney Maybelle on May 21, 2020 - 5:26pm

I love strawberries, when I lived in CA I used to go to californiastrawberries dot com all the time for the best recipes ever! I am setting up my garden to do mostly strawberries. Thanks for the amazing information.

Strawberries!

Submitted by Whitney Maybelle on May 21, 2020 - 5:26pm

I love strawberries, when I lived in CA I used to go to californiastrawberries dot com all the time for the best recipes ever! I am setting up my garden to do mostly strawberries. Thanks for the amazing information.

Strawberries!

Submitted by Whitney Maybelle on May 21, 2020 - 5:25pm

I love strawberries, when I lived in CA I used to go to californiastrawberries dot com all the time for the best recipes ever! I am setting up my garden to do mostly strawberries. Thanks for the amazing information.

Strawberries!

Submitted by Whitney Maybelle on May 21, 2020 - 5:25pm

I love strawberries, when I lived in CA I used to go to californiastrawberries .com all the time for the best recipes ever! I am setting up my garden to do mostly strawberries. Thanks for the amazing information.

Strawberries!

Submitted by Whitney Maybelle on May 21, 2020 - 5:24pm

I love strawberries, when I lived in CA I used to go to californiastrawberries. com all the time for the best recipes ever! I am setting up my garden to do mostly strawberries. Thanks for the amazing information.

Strawberries from seeds

Submitted by Patty Staley on April 11, 2020 - 1:40pm

How many seeds per hole?

growing strawberries

Submitted by ane on March 8, 2020 - 12:29pm

I don't do any of the 'special' things to grow strawberries. My plants are in big planters, they have rooted, flowered, fruited, made runners and been perfectly happy for nearly three years now. I bring them in to the plant room during the coldest part of the winter then back out on the south wall of the house to do it all over again. I have runners to plant or give away, lots of fruit we eat straight off the plant and no worries about what to do when. I tend to do this will all my plants and it works. Too much fuss kill everything.

Painted rocks that look like strawberries

Submitted by Tara Thralls on March 5, 2020 - 1:43pm

I haven’t tried it yet, but I read that painting rocks red with little white dots on them to look like strawberries, and placing them in visible areas will help deflect birds. If a bird tries what looks like a strawberry and they get a rock, they won’t try again!

Strawberry Preserves, Broken Link :(

Submitted by Whalefreak on October 22, 2019 - 2:56pm

Hello there.. I found this Wonderful article this morning! And the link that says, 'How to make Strawberry Preserves' is broken! When I go there, it says Page not found.. I'll be checking back!

Strawberry Preserves Recipe

Submitted by Jeanette Bowers on October 23, 2019 - 10:49am

Hello - In response to your complaint, go to the top of the page and type in Strawberry Preserves. It'll take you to the video and have a working link for the recipe. Have a blessed day!

Link to Strawberry Preserves

The Editors's picture

Submitted by The Editors on March 7, 2020 - 2:17pm

Thank you to Jeanette for taking the time to provide these helpful instructions!  We have also updated the broken link for the Strawberry Preserves Video.

How long before pull up plants and start over?

Submitted by Geri Reski on October 22, 2019 - 9:30am

Everything I have read says after plants are 3 years old they will stop producing...and just get rid of them and plant new. My strawberry plants arr now 3. They are everbearing. They have produced abundantly these past years and this year through June..then stopped. Should I pull them out and start over?

Strawberry Plants

The Editors's picture

Submitted by The Editors on October 23, 2019 - 4:29pm

Yes, if you’ve seen no new buds since June, it sounds like the plants have reached their limit. Everbearing don’t produce many runners, but if they do have a few, you can use those to start your next generation. 

Strawberry Growing

Submitted by Emely Phiri on September 16, 2019 - 6:36am

How long do the roots of strawberries grow?

Strawberry Nutrients

Submitted by Tyler on July 12, 2019 - 10:31am

What Nutrients Do Strawberries Have?

Strawberry nutritional value

The Editors's picture

Submitted by The Editors on July 12, 2019 - 12:05pm

Hi Tyler,

Strawberries are packed with Vitamin C (1 cup = 141% of your daily value). Vitamin C is an antioxidant necessary for immune and skin health.

Also, strawberries are also a good source of manganese (1 cup = 28% of your daily value) which is an element that is important for many processes in your body.

There are also small amounts of folate (vitamin B9), potassium, and several other vitamins and minerals.

Selecting and Preparing a Planting Site Planting Strawberries

Submitted by Tyler on July 12, 2019 - 10:22am

How Deep do you Plant Strawberries exactly?

planting depth for strawberries

The Editors's picture

Submitted by The Editors on July 12, 2019 - 12:10pm

Tyler, That is a good question and we’ll make sure we update the article to provide more “depth,” so to speak.

The planting depth for strawberries is very important. It’s not a question of how many inches. You want to set the plant into the ground so that the roots are nicely covered with soil, but DO NOT BURY THE CROWN. The crown is the central growing bud, from which the leaves, flowers, and fruit arise. If you bury the crown, the plant could rot. 

Ants

Submitted by Kelley on June 17, 2019 - 7:47am

Ants have found my strawberries. How do I get rid of them?

Ants on Strawberries

The Editors's picture

Submitted by The Editors on June 17, 2019 - 4:42pm

If the weather’s dry enough, try placing some diatomaceous earth around your berries to prevent the ants from accessing them.

Strawberries

Submitted by Pat on March 31, 2019 - 12:08pm

I tried growing some strawberries in a "strawberry pot" that was advertised on one of the tv shows. First and second year the plants actually grew and I got some nice large fruits, but the plants dried up and died. I think those "pots" are a waste. And, of course, the chipmunks didn't help -- they ate the strawberries and always beat me to the blueberries, too. : ( But I still LOVE to garden!!

Strawberries

Submitted by Geri Reski on March 29, 2019 - 9:16am

I have a smaller greenhouse that I only grow my strawberries in. I find that after 3 years of the same plants within it I must remove and plant new. They are only productive for 3 years although they will continue to be healthy, vibrant plants. Production of fruit, however, drops off. I am in zone 7 at 5600 ft elevation and we do get frost and snow. I did nothing to cover them during the winter but early March here I removed dead leaves, trimmed things back, added compost and seaweed fertilizer and they are growing like a house a’fire! Am looking forward to an abundant crop of berries this year!

Straw mulch for new planting

Submitted by Tommyboy on March 28, 2019 - 12:11pm

I just planted new berry crowns, was wondering if i can use straw to mulch them to hold down weeds?

Straw Mulch

The Editors's picture

Submitted by The Editors on March 28, 2019 - 3:38pm

Yes, straw is commonly used around strawberries as mulch. Just be sure not to bury the strawberries themselves!

About Strawberries

Submitted by Nazanin on September 13, 2018 - 5:05am

Why is the strawberry fruit sweet?
Why does the strawberry flower become the strawberry fruit?
If you could answer these questions, that would be amazing.

mulching strawberries

Submitted by Helen B on September 5, 2018 - 3:02pm

Can I use grass cuttings to mulch plants? Do all the plants get cut down? I hesitate to do that !

Mulching Strawberries

The Editors's picture

Submitted by The Editors on September 6, 2018 - 4:53pm

Yes, you can use grass clippings to mulch strawberries, as long as the grass comes from a pesticide-free area and there are no weeds’ seeds mixed in. Straw is a better alternative, however. The important thing is that the mulch doesn’t get too compacted and hold in excessive moisture.

Depending on where in the country you are, you’ll want to wait until late October or early November to mulch. Don’t cut the plants down before mulching, and use at least 4 inches of mulch—more if you are in a place that gets particularly cold winters.

not sure about strawberries

Submitted by dhlw jayamanne on January 1, 2019 - 9:25am

Are you sure that it will be succes in this way

Pages

Growing Strawberries

Botanical Name Fragaria spp.
Plant Type Fruit
Sun Exposure Full Sun
Soil Type Loamy
Soil pH Slightly Acidic to Neutral
Bloom Time
Flower Color Pink, Red, White
Hardiness Zones 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
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