How to grow and care for strawberry plants

Many home gardeners love to grow strawberry plants, as they are quite easy to grow as well as yielding delicious fruit year after year. Generally each plant will yield about a quart of Strawberries .

Selecting Plants There are basically three types of plants to choose from:

June Bearing: The most commonly used plant. It bears fruit once a year, and is renowned for making large strawberries. June Bearing strawberries that provide good yields include the Totem, Tioga, Shuksan, Puget Beauty, Olympus, Northwest, Hood, Douglas and the Benton.

There are many different kinds of Everbearing strawberries, for instance, the Tristar, Tillikum, Sequoia, Selva, Rainier, Quinault, Ozark Beauty, Ogallala, Lassen, Hecker, Fort Laramie, Fern, Chandler and the Brighton.

Day Neutral: This plant will produce fruit right through the growing season, but like the Everbearing the fruit will not be as large as the June Bearing varieties. Day Neutral strawberry types are Tri-Star, Eversweet, and the Seascape Strawberry.

Seek advice from your nursery person prior to purchasing plants, as they will be happy to advise you as to which will yield the best crop for your area.

You may also have the soil tested by the local nursery, or they can direct you where to have your soil tested to make sure that it is primed to receive your plants so that they grow well and yield the most fruit.

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Strawberries love the full sun, thus do not do well in shady areas.

The area should be well drained.

Strawberry plants do well in sandy soil

When to Plant

This depends greatly on where you live. If you have harsh winters then purchase dormant plants, but plant during the earlier portions of spring even though the weather is still cold. If you have basically mild winters, then plant them in the fall, so that they will bear fruit for you in the spring. Be sure to pick off any flower buds though in order to give the plant a chance to establish itself well which will ensure a larger crop.

Rows or Mounds

Both of these methods will yield a good crop. If planted in rows most growers agree that they should be planted approximately 18 inches apart. In mounds then plant them 12-15 inches apart. Mounds are predominantly used when the soil will be too damp due to drainage problems.

How to Plant

Strawberry plants make a “crown” which needs to be above the ground if the plant is to make fruit. The uppermost roots need to be underground approximately ¼ inch below the level of the soil.Plant food should be distributed into the soil if you used the mound method, or in between each row if you used the row method. The plants will then require good watering, and some sort of mulch or ground covering such as plastic sheeting should be used in order to prevent weeds and hold in moisture.

Diseases

Strawberry plants are unfortunately susceptible to root rot, fruit rot, as well as fungi.

Remember that homegrown strawberries not only taste the best, but they can easily be organically grown for your family’s health.

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