How to Grow Strawberries
How do you grow the best-tasting strawberries? We’ll share our planting and growing tips. Let’s start with the best strawberry varieties.
Garden strawberries are typically much sweeter and juicier than what you can find in the grocery store because the sugar in the berries converts to sugar after the berries are removed from the plant.
Strawberries are also perennials, so they’ll come back year after year! Plus, they will grow easily in a traditional garden bed, in containers, or even as a border crop.
Choosing Strawberry Varieties
Strawberries are best planted in the spring, as early as several weeks before the last frost date. By selecting a range of strawberry varieties you can spread your harvest from late spring through to early fall. Look for varieties described as ‘early-season’ to start, then choose a mid-season type, followed by a late-season strawberry.
June-bearing Strawberries
The most common variety of strawberries is called June-bearing because the fruit crops during the weeks of June (or early July) in most regions. The harvest generally lasts several weeks.
Everbearing Strawberries
For smaller quantities of strawberries produced over a long period (from spring to autumn), you could choose ‘everbearing’ varieties, also known as day-neutral or perpetual strawberries.
Everbearing strawberries are smaller, but can produce a few harvests each season. They are excellent for making preserves.
Alpine Strawberries
Alpine strawberries have tiny fruits that have a very intense strawberry taste. They don’t fruit heavily, but they can be allowed to grow between ornamentals and will naturally self-seed to create a useful edible ground cover.
Our Garden Planner can help you choose the best strawberry varieties to grow. Double-click on the strawberry icon to view the Varieties box and then scroll down the drop-down list to select a variety, or click the + button and hover over the information buttons for catalog descriptions. You even customize your own variety with its own spacing and dates.
Planting Strawberries
Strawberries will tolerate a partially shaded position, but grow them in a sunny spot for the best harvests. Add plenty of organic matter, such as well-rotted compost, before planting. Plant your strawberries so that the base of the crown (where the leaves emerge) is at soil level. Space them 18 to 24 inches apart in both directions.
Growing your strawberries in containers keeps the fruit off the ground where they are less likely to be nibbled by slugs. Fill the pots with rich potting soil and you can plant the strawberries a little closer together. Containers can dry out quickly, so pay close attention to watering.
To encourage a harvest of strawberries up to three weeks earlier than normal, cover early varieties with a cloche or row cover from the end of winter. When the plants are flowering, remove the covers on warm days to let insect pollinators in.
Growing Strawberries
Use special strawberry mats to prevent dirt from splashing onto the developing fruits, or use an organic mulch such as straw.
Keep plants weeded and well watered. Water on an organic liquid fertilizer that’s high in potassium (such as comfrey tea or a tomato fertilizer) every two weeks from when the first flowers appear until they’ve finished fruiting.
In the first year remove any runners (long trailing stems) that appear. From the second year, you can leave a few runners to grow them on into new plants.
Keep slug numbers down using beer traps, and net the fruits against birds. Make sure to tuck netting in at the edges to prevent birds becoming trapped underneath.
Harvesting Strawberries
Strawberries are ripe as soon as they’ve turned red. They taste best immediately after picking. Strawberries can be stored in a refrigerator after picking, but this does make them a little less flavorsome.
Once strawberries have finished fruiting, cut back the older foliage to leave just the young, central leaves. Add any straw mulch to your compost heap.
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What should the pH level of the soil be for growing strawberries?
For strawberries, the soil should be slightly acidic—between 5.5 and 7. Learn more in our Growing Guide for Strawberries!
Hello,
I had big plans to relocate my strawberry bed this year in Early March. We had a big snow (uncommon for us here in Seattle) and it seemed no plants had survived. But now, mid april they have all popped back up. The bed they were in last year was very overcrowded. My question is... can I move them now - or am I too late? I have plants in that bed that are in their 3rd year and some grown from runners in their first. Should I do a mix of things? Also - how do I know how deep to dig to remove them without damage? What do the roots look like?
We typically have several pages on a subject, often with a different angle; this is one. Click here to read more https://www.almanac.com/plant/strawberries such as
• Plant as soon as the ground can be worked in the Spring. See your local frost dates. (Hint: You’re in good time for moving.)
• Roots shouldn’t be longer than 8 inches when plants are set out. Trim them if necessary. (Dig down and then trim to size.)
• Provide adequate space for sprawling. Set plants out 20 inches apart, and leave 4 feet between rows. (Mix them; that’s nature’s way.)
Your plants will be fine. They surprised you once already this year. It’s still early!
I got some seeds for strawberries and the flowers are pink. What variety are they?
“Pink-Flowering Strawberries” is the common name for Fragaria x ananassa. Varieties to look for include: ‘Toscana’, ‘Tristan’, ‘Florian’ and ‘Gasana.’
They are day-neutral strawberries (bear fruit all summer) and very pretty additions to an edible landscape!
