When do i grow strawberries

The 3 Basic Types of Strawberries. This one throws off a lot of gardeners: depending on which type you are growing, you will get fruit at different points in the growing season. Where to Plant Strawberries. Strawberries enjoy a sunny location , sheltered from strong winds so insects can assist with pollination. Stackable Vertical Planter Amazon. There are exceptions, but, generally: Classic strawberries fruit once a year in early summer. Perpetual or ever-bearing strawberries fruit in early summer and provide a smaller crop in late summer or early fall.

Some may also fruit mid-summer. Alpine strawberries fruit ongoing from early summer to fall. You can plant strawberries any time the ground is not frozen. If you want berries the same year, plant them in spring when the risk of frost has passed or buy plants with already ripening fruit.

No, not particularly. Coffee grounds are fine to add to your compost pile where they can decompose along with a variety of other suitable greens fruit and vegetable scraps and more. They do not however have any superpowers though that are superior to other compostable items.

You can read more about coffee grounds in the garden here. Strawberries are self-pollinating but do benefit with assistance from insects including bees and the wind. Best Time to Plant Strawberries The ideal time to plant strawberries is after the threat of frost is past in early spring, usually March or April. Planting Zones In order to answer the question, "When is it too late to plant strawberries," you need to know a few important facts, such as: What's your planting zone?

Which type of strawberry do you want to plant? Learn your planting zone and optimum planting times by consulting an online map of zones. Types of Strawberries There are three categories of strawberries, and a wide range of different strawberry varieties. The three categories are: June-bearing Everbearing Day neutral Of these, the June-bearing type of strawberry produces once a year, sometime around June. When Is It Too Late to Plant Strawberries Since they bloom and fruit right on up until October, you can successfully plant day neutral strawberries long after the others have stopped production.

Options for Late Planting If it's late in the season and you still want your very own succulent, organic strawberries, there is always a way around the proverbial wisdom of planting in March or April. To recap, here are just a few ways to have more success with planting later than March or April: Plant in hanging baskets or containers, as they can be moved out of the intense summer heat when necessary and they're easy to water and tend.

Pinch off any blossoms the first year so all of the nutrients go to root growth and not to fruit production. This way it doesn't matter if your already past the bloom dates. Plant everbearing or day neutral strawberries because harvest period is longer. Prepare the soil well first by digging in plenty of well-rotted garden compost or manure.

Then scatter a high-potash general fertiliser over the soil. Plant the strawberry plants cm apart, in rows 75cm apart, so their roots are just buried, and firm the soil around them. Water in well and keep well watered for the first few weeks as they establish. Strawberries grow extremely well in pots, hanging baskets and window boxes. They thrive in moist but well-drained conditions, so use a soil-based compost with a deep layer of gravel or broken crocks in the base.

Encourage flowers and fruit set by feeding with a liquid high potash feed such as tomato food every week or two from early spring onwards. You can also grow strawberries in growing bags. A growing bag will support six to eight strawberry plants, especially if you lay one bag over another, with holes cut around the bag, to allow roots to penetrate to the full depth. Mail-order runners are the cheaper, more traditional way to buy strawberry plants and a good option if you are starting a new strawberry patch.

They are available in spring and autumn and are sold in bundles of plants, with long roots and a tiny tuft of leaves on top. Prepare the soil well beforehand and plant the strawberries so their roots are just buried, about cm apart, then firm the soil around them. Water well for the first few weeks. So if you can, order and plant your runners in autumn. Water your strawberry plants regularly, especially when new plants are establishing or in hot weather.

Avoid wetting the centre of the plant or wetting any ripening fruits, to prevent grey mould. In early spring, scatter a general-purpose fertiliser around your plants in the ground, following the instructions on the pack.

From early spring onwards, encourage flowering and fruit set by feeding your strawberry plants with a high-potash feed such as tomato feed every week or two follow the pack instructions.

Tuck some straw around the plants just before the fruits start to develop, or put a strawberry mat around each plant. This helps to keep the berries clean and deters slugs and snails. It also helps to keep weeds down. Netting can be used to deter birds and small mammals from eating the fruits. This needs to be fixed carefully as birds, hedgehogs, slow worms and other animals can become trapped in the netting, and die. Ideally, you should use a fixed net cage with holes large enough for pollinators to access the strawberry flowers, which cannot stretch and become entangled.

However, by paying careful attention to loose netting you can ensure no animals can become trapped. Take away all of the old straw around the plants to avoid a build-up of pests and diseases. Remove any netting so that birds can eat any pests in the ground.

After three to four years, fruit size and quality declines so you will need to replace your plants with new stock. Extra compost, peat moss, and some sand or grit can be added to your selected site to create the best environment for growing strawberries. Potting soils usually have sufficient compositions if you are planning on planting strawberries in a container. In that case, add an extra inch or two of fresh compost to the surface of the potting mix.

The history of the dirt patch is also important to your success in growing strawberries. If other Verticillium -susceptible crops have been grown in the same area during the last three years, it is best to choose a different site. The most common of these plants are tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, peppers, and strawberries. If these plants or melons, okra, mint, bush or bramble fruits, stone fruits, chrysanthemums, and roses have been grown in the same spot recently within 5 years , it is best to grow your strawberry plants elsewhere.

Third, it is important to pick a site that has good soil drainage and surface drainage. Although strawberry plants need constant moisture to thrive, the plants will rot if left in standing water due to poor site drainage.

If you only have access to a site that has poor drainage or heavy soils, constructing a raised bed for the strawberry plants should facilitate better drainage. The strawberry bed should be elevated, at minimum, six to eight inches. Also, make sure there are drainage holes in the bottom if you are using container gardening methods. Strawberries do not perform well in drought conditions either. Therefore, be sure to select a site that will allow easy access so that it can be watered if rainfall is not adequate.

You can also grow strawberries inside hydroponics. When growing strawberries, it is important to keep in mind that they are traditionally grown as perennials. So, even though some varieties can be grown as annuals in the hotter parts of the south, better results are usually obtained when the strawberry plants are planted in one year and nurtured for bigger yields in subsequent years.

Various planting systems are used for growing strawberries depending on which type you plant. As discussed in the Strawberry Varieties page, the three types of strawberries are June-bearing strawberries, ever-bearing strawberries, and day-neutral strawberries.

June bearing strawberry plants are most often planted using the matted row system while day neutral strawberry plants and ever-bearing strawberry plants are usually planted in a hill system also called the mound or mounding system.

These two systems usually yield the best crops. However, spaced row systems, single hedgerow systems, and double hedgerow systems are also used. The matted row system for growing strawberries is most commonly used for June bearing varieties, and it works well for any cultivar that sends out a lot of runners. To grow strawberries with this system, set plants about 24 inches apart 18 to 30 inches is acceptable in rows about 4 feet apart.

Allow runners to spread freely and root at will within the row to form a crisscrossed, matted row about 24 inches wide. The matted row system of growing strawberries will produce the largest number of strawberries, but the quality of individual berries is rarely equal to the quality of berries grown with the hill system. Here is a diagram of how to use the matted row system to grow strawberries:. The hill system for growing strawberries is most commonly used for day neutral strawberries and everbearing strawberries.

Extend this mound into a row as long as you like. Set two rows of plants per hill in a staggered pattern with each plant being 12 inches from the other plants. Multiple rows are spaced 4 feet apart.

All runners are removed from every strawberry plant in the hill system as soon as they are identified. Removing the runners causes all the productive capacity of the mother plants to remain with the mother plants. This energy will result in additional lateral crowns adjacent to the original crown and more flower stalks for fruiting. There are two modified versions of the hill system: the single hedgerow and the double hedgerow also called the spaced-row system.

These systems are the same as the hill system except that some runners are permitted. In the single hedgerow system, each strawberry plant is allowed to root two additional runner plants. The double hedgerow permits several runners to root. All runner plants in this system should be spaced at least 4 inches away from other plants 5 to 7 inches is better.

Once you have decided where you will be growing strawberries, you need to prepare your garden for planting strawberries. If your site is sod-covered, it is best to cultivate and till the area the year before you want to plant your strawberries to eliminate competing grasses. When possible, it is best to grow a green manure crop the year before you want to begin growing strawberries to improve soil quality oats, sudan grass, and rye are all excellent for this.

When you are ready to plant your berry plants, you should, to the best of your ability, ensure that the site is free of weeds, grubs, and any soil-borne diseases. Once any sod or grass is gone, work two to three inches of compost into the top layer of soil.

Peat, compost, or aged straw and manure are good options. Additionally, organic or inorganic fertilizer can further improve soil quality by being worked down to six inches. In order to grow strawberries most effectively, the soil needs to be slightly acidic.

Strawberry plants will grow in dirt that has a pH between 5. Soil test kits are available online and through garden supply stores. Before planting strawberries, you should test your soil and amend it as indicated to create the best possible environment for growing strawberries. Common amendments are lime and manure.

If test results show that lime is needed, it should be applied prior to planting the strawberry plants and tilled in thoroughly with the soil. Compost or aged manure from cows or horses is also added, usually at a rate of 2 to 5 bushels per square feet.

Learning how and when to properly plant strawberries is an important step in learning how to grow strawberries. Fortunately, it is fairly easy! This guide is tailored to the typical home gardener who plants an entire garden, including strawberry plants, in the spring. For spring planting, as soon as the soil is dry and able to be worked usually March or April , you should plant your strawberries. The plants need to be well-established before the temperatures rise in the summer months.

When you are ready, loosen and pulverize the dirt down six to eight inches, and keep it loose to allow runners to take hold and roots to establish. You should have disease-free, healthy plants ready to plant. If picking them yourself, choose plants that have large crowns with healthy, light-colored roots. If you ordered them, open the package immediately and inspect them.

If moldy, send the strawberry plants directly back. Planting strawberry plants should be done on a cloudy or overcast day or during the late afternoon. How to plant strawberries: dig out a hole big enough to spread out the roots of each strawberry plant. In the bottom of the hole, create a mound or hill of soil that is flush with the surrounding soil level.

Put the strawberry plant on top of the hill inside the hole so that the crown is at soil level and spread the roots out down the sides of the hill. Fill in the hole and ensure that the soil level is even with the middle of the crown. Planting too shallow may cause the roots to dry out before they establish, and planting too deep can also damage growing strawberries.

See the figure below for proper crown placement. Once the plants are planted, press to firm the soil around the roots and then water thoroughly.

There are two main scenarios gardeners typically encounter when deciding to order plants. They either obtain plants that are actively growing either in pots or as plug plants , or they buy dormant bare root strawberries. The potted plants usually have a head start on the dormant plants and will grow more quickly, but they are typically significantly more expensive.

For the same price as two or three potted plants, one can often obtain bare root plants. Plug plants are in the middle of the cost spectrum, but they are still usually more expensive than the bare root strawberries.

Planting each is slightly different. Secondly, here is a video demonstration of how to plant bare root strawberry plants.

Once the plants are in the ground, it is important to create an environment that is most conducive to growing strawberries. Mulching is a time-honored method for making the growing strawberries happy. Pine needles are a good choice as they slightly raise the acidity of soil as they decompose.

Mulching also keeps the soil temperature down, mitigates the weed problem, and keeps the fruit cleaner by keeping the strawberries off of the dirt. Most varieties of strawberries produce better when their roots are in cooler soil. However, delaying gratification now can result in higher quantities of strawberries later.

Additionally, it is important to treat June-bearing strawberries differently than everbearing strawberries and day-neutral strawberries. All types of strawberry plants will produce better in subsequent years if all their energies are devoted to establishing themselves and producing healthy runner plants in the first year.

To accomplish this requires a feat of delayed gratification. To have the strongest plants in subsequent years, you have to remove all the flower buds in year one.

Few people do this, but most should. For June bearing varieties, you can train the runners to follow a specific pattern, or you can allow them relative freedom in a matted row system. In general, all strawberry plants will produce best when limited to a density of approximately five plants per square foot. Too many strawberry plants will have the same effect as weeds would: reduced yields of smaller strawberries.

Of course, any and all weeds should be removed. For day neutral and everbearing strawberry plants, the removal of buds and runners should occur until July 1 st of year one. Instead, they focus their energy on producing multiple strawberry harvests. You may end up getting a small harvest with everbearing or day-neutral varieties, depending on your climate. The main harvest will come in the second year when all mother plants and all the runners which were well-rooted before August will produce strawberries!

Growing strawberry plants require a constantly moist environment, so regular watering is needed. To have the most success growing strawberries, at least an inch of water should be provided to the plants either through rainfall or direct supplemental.

Up to two inches of water can be given while the fruit is forming, from early bloom until the end of harvest. Watering should continue during dry periods in August and September.