Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Strawberries
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Planting
Strawberry plants require 6 to 10 hours of direct sunlight a day, so choose a sunny spot. Otherwise, strawberries are tolerant of different soil types, although they prefer loamy soil that drains well.
Preparing the Soil for Strawberries
To ensure a strong start, add a few buckets of well-rotted manure before planting; you could also use garden compost. 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 lightly 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 before 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. Raised beds are a particularly good option for strawberry plants.
Practice crop rotation for the most success. Unless you plan to amend your soil each year, do not plant in a site that recently had tomatoes, peppers, or eggplant.
Also, note that strawberries and garlic are good planting companions if you wish to interplant. Garlic helps deter pests like spider mites.
When to Plant Strawberries
- Plan to plant when the ground can be worked in the spring. See your local frost dates.
- Establish new plants each year to maintain high berry quality each season. Strawberry plants will produce runners (daughter plants) that root and grow into new strawberry plants.
- Buy disease-resistant plants from a reputable nursery, of a variety that is recommended in your area. You can consult with the nursery you buy them from or with your state Cooperative Extension service for locally recommended varieties.
- You can buy strawberries in pots, but also you can sometimes find bare-root strawberries or runners, which offer really excellent value for money. They look fairly shocking, without any leaves and rather scraggly, but don’t let that put you off. Once they hit the soil, they’ll be well away!
How to Plant Strawberries
- Provide adequate space for sprawling. Allow for spacing of around 18 inches (1-1/2 feet) to leave room for runners and leave 4 feet between rows. Strawberries are sprawling plants. Seedlings will send out runners, which, in turn, will send out their own runners. (Container strawberries can be planted closer together.)
- Plant holes should be 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.
- To settle their roots into the soil, water plants well at the time of planting.
- Use a mulch of the strawberry’s namesake – straw!
- It is also possible to grow strawberries from last year’s runners. See this video to find out how.
Planting Strawberries in Containers
Potted strawberries are easy to get right. They go in at the same depth as the potting mix in the container, but for bare-rooted plants, make sure you don’t go too deep or too shallow. If too deep, the plant may struggle and could potentially rot away. If it is too shallow, it will rock about and dry out really easily, creating a weak and brittle plant. You want the crown of the plant where the stems of the leaves emerge to be ever so slightly proud of the soil surface. Learn more about growing strawberries in pots.
Watch this video to see how to plant strawberries in garden beds or containers.
Growing
How to Grow Strawberries
- The big tip with strawberries is to keep them well watered while they are establishing their roots and during dry weather. Moisture is incredibly important due to its shallow roots. Water adequately, about one inch per square foot per week. Strawberry plants need a lot of water when the runners and flowers are developing and again in the late summer when the plants are fully mature and gearing up for winter dormancy.
- Keep strawberry 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.
- Once strawberries flower, fertilize them with a high-potassium, liquid tomato feed to encourage good fruit production. Plants also benefit from the addition of an organic, general-purpose fertilizer early in spring, as they set into growth, to help power things up for the new season.
- 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 instead, which is a good thing. The yields will be much greater in the second year.
- Eliminate runner 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.
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 regularly drops into the low twenties (Fahrenheit), 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 the danger of frost has passed.
How to Propagate Strawberries
Strawberries produce long, wiry stems called runners with little plantlets along them. You can use these to grow more strawberries by just pinning the plantlets down to the root and then severing them from the mother plant once they have. See our article for details on how to grow more strawberries!
Types
Try planting more than one variety. Each will respond differently to conditions, and you will have various 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.
Harvesting
How to Harvest Strawberries
- When you grow your own, you can peak at the peak of ripeness. No more white strawberries! Harvest only fully red (ripe) berries, and pick every three days.
- Fruit is typically ready for harvesting 4 to 6 weeks after blossoming.
- Ideally, pick fruits in the warmth of the afternoon for maximum flavor.
- 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. Depending on the variety, you should have an abundance of berries.
How to Store Strawberries
- Store unwashed berries in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days.
- Strawberries can be frozen whole for about 2 months.
- Dehydrate them or turn them into delicious jams. Learn how to Make Strawberry Preserves!
Catherine Boeckmann
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Hi I have a question. For 2 years I had nice strawberries plants in a raised bed, I never cut them back . We put straw over the beds for the winter. Well, we took the straws off and I don't have any plants. It look like something went under the hay( straw) ate the greens off it all. I hope the roots are still there. There is no hole in the ground. Can you tell me what happened? There are no greens or dead leaves either; they're gone and eaten off. I just see soil.
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Came home to deer eating my strawberry plants, the whole plant and not just the ones with berries!
Hi Frank, Sorry to hear about your strawberry crop. That must have been a disappointing discovery. While most of the pests that harm strawberry plants are insects, they would not have eaten the plants down to the soil. You certainly had some hungry (and stealth) critters around your property that took an extreme liking to your strawberry plants. Whether your crowns remain in tact for future growth or you plant new strawberries for next year, it might be a good idea to put up some sort of fencing or barrier around your raised beds as a deterrent.
While this does not sound like the case with your strawberries, since you said that you never cut back your strawberries, this is a good opportunity to mention that after harvesting your crop, it is best to cut back the foliage to 1-inch above the ground. This helps to remove older leaves that could be infected with diseases and control insects by removing their food source and potential breeding sites.
It is funny that altho I have a compulsion to put things in rows and keep everything to a minimum, I don't plant that way. Why? Because nature doesn't plant that way. I have waist high planters and 16 inch pots that hold everything. My strawberries had the last three months in shade because I hadn't gotten the lay of the land in my front yard. They will probably be sent to the back deck soon as the old tree in the front has decided to spread more this year. They are crowded, no mulch, and producing like they are very happy. I don't keep the runners cause they are not as vigorous as the mother plants and over time will revert to the original berry species. But they do look pretty hanging over the side of the pot. It's funny how all the sites say the same thing, I have never paid attention and currently have enough strawberries to make a pie with rhubarb I found at the local market... these are day neutral...good times
i grow hydroponically everything from tomatoes to lettuce in perlite with nutrients can you grow strawberry's
in perlite
Can I grow the runners indoors once I've cut them off? If so, how? Hydroponics or planted? They don't have time to establish roots outdoors and I hate to waste the 20 baby plants. ALL have large nodes for roots.
Yes you can plant runners indoors in in pots until you can put them outside. Depending on your type of plant, it may continue to bloom and grow berries. I had a new deck built, strawberries were growing around support posts and had to be removed during construction. I removed and potted all. Put a baby runner in a single pot and the remaining bunch of plants in a huge pot. All are indoor since construction continued into December. I'm hoping all survive through winter till spring so I can transplant. Good luck with your strawberries. I bought a really hardy everberring plant. It's continuing to ripen fruit in front of patio door. I'm amazed that the original plant and the dozen of runner plants did so well.
My strawberry bed is over ten years old,
old plants are replaced by new runners and produce nice size fruit,
however two years ago I started noticing new strawberry plants but they're like wild ones.
They have tiny little berries and have spread all over.
I've tried pulling out those runners but can't get them all.
I'm afraid they will choke out my real plants.
How do I rid my garden of these wild ones?
Mulch with sand n compost covering the undesirable plants and leaving the others to thrive.
