Why yes, I DO think you should grow strawberries this year. How to choose them, how to grow them and what to do with them.
Skip right to the planting instructions.
Not interested in growing strawberries? Picture this: A warm scone broken in half, slathered with a layer of creamy butter and thick, sweet strawberry jam. Good. So now you wanna grow strawberries ... here's how to do it.
A bit of history ... I have a 40' x 40' community garden with two full beds dedicated to growing my own strawberries. I started to grow a few of my own strawberry plants, because really you don't need a lot of berries to make quite a bit of jam. Jam's mostly sugar with a few berries thrown in for colour as far as I can tell. Which I'm fine with by the way. I don't want pectin free jam, I don't want freezer jam, I want 100% full of sugar, bad for you jam.
My original strawberry plants I got from a fellow community gardener who was giving away runners. Strawberries put out little runners and those turn into plants so if you grow strawberries you'll always have plenty of plants to give away.
So these berries were great for jam but they were pretty tart which made them not as great for sitting in the dirt and eating them straight off the plant. So began the search for the perfect strawberry.
A trip to my local farmer's market introduced me to the "day neutral" variety of strawberry called Albion. It was a big berry and incredibly sweet.
Yay! I had done it! I found my next strawberry variety! Then I spent the rest of the summer researching strawberries just in case there was something better out there.
Strawberries, like David Sedaris, are a funny little fruit. You could read for hours and hours about them and still not entirely understand all there is to know about all of the varieties. Not only are there a billion different varieties, they can be put into 1 of 3 categories.
Types of Strawberries
And Which ones are the Best for YOU.
JUNE BEARING - June bearing strawberries are the most common strawberries. They have one big flush of berries in June that lasts for a few weeks. The name is a bit of a misnomer because depending on where you live June bearing strawberries can actually bear fruit in May or July. In warmer zones they'll fruit in May, and in colder zones, not until July. Best for anyone who wants a lot of berries all at once for making jams etc.
Popular June Bearing Strawberry Varieties - Annapolis, AC Wendy, Galletta.
EVERBEARING - Everbearing strawberries give fruit 2 or 3 times a season, not just once like the June bearing strawberries. However, they don't give you as many berries in one big flush either. You can expect smaller amounts of berries flushes; one in early summer and one in early fall. You may also get a few extra berries scattered throughout the summer. This type also needs long day lengths to produce flowers and then fruit. Best for anyone who wants two reasonable sized harvests a year instead of one large one.
Popular Everbearing Strawberry Varieties - Fort Laramie, Quinault, Ozark Beauty
DAY NEUTRAL - Day neutral strawberries don't care about day length at all. As long as the temperature is between 1°C - 30°C then that little plant will continue to make flowers and berries. That translates to 35°F - 85°F for my American readers. You'll get strawberries any time conditions remain in that temperature range. I've picked a strawberry as late as November in my zone 6 home in Ontario. This type of strawberry however, doesn't like temperatures above 30°C, so if you live in a climate with temperatures consistently over this these wouldn't be a good choice for you. Best for anyone looking to have a constant supply of strawberries all season long. First flush is large enough for jam making.
Popular Day Neutral Strawberry Varieties - Albion, Seascape, Mara des Bois, Charlotte
After spending WAY too much time researching everything I could about strawberries I went with the Day Neutral variety, Charlotte. A variety that is available from Lareault in North America.
It's a strawberry that was developed in France and is a cross between the wild type of strawberry, the Mara des Bois and a Californian Cal 19 strawberry. What that ends up creating is among the sweetest, most fragrant strawberries in the world. The Charlotte.
The Carrie and Miranda and pretty good too but I'd avoid the Samantha - a total tart.
Update: The GREAT things about Day Neutral berries is their ability to give you fruit the first season. With the more popular June Bearing strawberries in the first year you're supposed to pinch off all the flowers so the plant will spend all of its energy on growing bigger and stronger as opposed to making fruit. You don't have to do that with Day Neutral berries. You can pinch off the very first flush of flowers, then get strawberries for the rest of the first year. No year long waiting period!
How to Plant Strawberries
AS SOON AS YOU CAN PUT A SHOVEL INTO THE SOIL YOU CAN PLANT YOUR STRAWBERRY CROWNS.
1. Strawberries like to grow on a hill with good drainage. To accomplish this, dig yourself a bed that's around 8" high. In that bed dig out as many holes as you need for your strawberry plants. They should be at least 12" apart.
2. Fill each hole with a few handfuls of good compost.
3. Take a look at your scraggly little strawberry plant. People call this whole thing a crown, but really the crown is the top portion that grows above the roots. THAT is how deep you plant it. No deeper than the actual crown. You want the soil to land at the crown line where the roots meet the actual plant so all of the plant and leaves are above ground.
4. Shape the soil in your planting holes into a dome shaped mound.
5. Place your plant over the mound so the roots are spread out and facing down. Make sure there's contact between the underside of the crown and soil. No air gaps. Basically it's like a bra on a boob.
6. Fill in the hole with soil and press down slightly with your hands.
7. At this point you should water in the plants. My community garden doesn't even have the water turned on yet, so I'm going to have to count on some rain soon instead.
It looks sparse now but in a couple of months it'll be bursting with strawberries. Or chipmunks. Or birds. One of the those things anyway.
I planted two beds like this for a total of 44 strawberry plants and a few months later they were covered in flowers ready to fruit.
And one year later I dug them all up and moved them into my new garden plot where I planted them under tents of hardware cloth to protect them from pests.
I moved them all when they were in full flower which is NOT the ideal time, but as long as you disturb them as little as possible it can be done. Every single plant lived to tell the tale.
The hardware cloth tent covering the berry patches keeps everything other than slugs out. For catching/drowning slugs I use beer or my homemade slug chug.
You don't have to have this much room to grow strawberries though. As long as you keep them watered and in the sun, strawberries will thrive in hanging baskets, window boxes, pots and planters. Just remember that when you plant in smaller amounts of soil you do need to keep on top of fertilizing your plants. Add compost
GROWING TIPS
- Lay plastic or rubber circles around the base of your strawberry plants. This helps keep the berries clean and prevents rotting.
- As soon as your plants flower, fertilize them with composted manure or blood meal. Blood meal is also important for fertilizing onions. The added nitrogen for this nitrogen loving plant will really improve your harvest.
- WEED!
- Remove the energy sucking runners. Remember I told you that strawberry plants put out runners that turn into more plants? Remove them! You can either compost them, give them away for others to grow into plants or plant them in a new bed on their own.
That's it. You planted a strawberry patch and you've earned your Laura Ingalls Bonnet Badge.
Karen, How often after the first application should I fertilize?
Hi Lorraine. I add compost to the strawberries after their first flush. ~ karen!
Karen
I have followed you for years and have found your information to be excellent.
This last planting info was spot on
Thank You
Jim
That's a nice thing to say, thanks Jim. ~ karen!
Looked all over, no local nurseries had them. Just found Charlottes at Gurneys. Can't wait.
Love Charlottes and have been growing them in Charlotte, NC, for the last few years.
They handle the heat very well - it gets above 30C every day in the summer, where they get slammed with full sun all day, and they produce like crazy all summer.
The foliage grows high and flowers get shorter, which I think is the plant protecting its berries.
It's neat to watch, compared to the spring/fall, where it's easy to see the berries above the leaves.
It gets up to 35C in July/August and these never stop producing: I don't even water them that much (though mulching with straw or grass clippings is vital, for moisture retention).
Mine also run like crazy, but only in spring/fall: summer must be too hot to run.
My ten-plant investment in 2020 is now patch with between 500-1000 crowns, plus I've started three beds elsewhere in North Carolina.
Merci beaucoup Monsieur Philippe Roudeillac: the insane Frenchman who, in 1995, decided he wanted to breed the perfect strawberry.
https://inspection.canada.ca/english/plaveg/pbrpov/cropreport/str/app00007301e.shtml
I only got a HUGE amount of runners and plants the first year when they were in an open field. I've since moved them under covers so birds and mice don't get them, but I still get enough runners to keep rotating them. :) ~ karen!
Got any runners you need to rehome? I planted Albion last year but bunnies and other critters liked to take one bite out of each so I didn't get to try many. I let all my runners go to be new plants, should I cut them apart now?
Hi Erin, Yes, you can cut your runners now or you can actually lift them and plant them in a new bed so you can keep track of them. Remember you should pinch off flowers from them this year though! I know. No one wants to do that, lol. The variety I grow doesn't actually produce very many runners. :/ They did the first year, but since then they're very minimal. ~ karen!
Hi Karen, thanks for the wonderful post. Any chance you would be willing to post a tutorial on how you made your hardware cloth contraption that's protecting your strawberry plants? Thank you!
Hi Lauren. Those particular hinged houses I made with brackets that I bought at Lee Valley that were specifically for making a contraption like that. :) But it would be simple to do without those brackets. Since they're already built and I probably won't be building any more of them I don't think I'll be doing a tutorial on it. But it's really just making a frame out of 1x1s, covering it in hardware cloth and putting hinges on it so that it's attached to the top of a wood sided raised bed. ~ karen!
Hi Karen, I live just outside of Hamilton and none of my three usual seed suppliers are carrying the day neutral varieties. Do you have any dealers?? Sounds like a drug deal, I know!!
Thank you so much!
Colleen
Hi Colleen! You'll probably have to order online for the crowns. It's kind of a speciality thing. I have the feeling you *might* be able to get Albion from Veseys! ~ karen
Thanks for this post. I guess I'm a visual learner, because I love seeing the step-by-step process. You inspire me! Will be digging through your blog before digging my own garden. Lots of great tips! Thanks, again!
Thanks Heather! And you're welcome. :) ~ karen!
Thanks for the inspo, Karen.
I'd like to try the Charottes. On Lareault's site, I'm asked to select a plant type from: Fridge plant, Green top, Plugs (April) or Plugs (August). The "scraggly little strawberry plant" in your blog photo looks like the"Green top" in Lareault's description. Can you please confirm that Green top is the best choice?
Many thanks,
Weesie
When do you know to pull them out of the ground? And how do you store them over winter? (maybe another post?) Thank you
Hi! There's no need to pull them up. They just stay in the ground all winter. And the next winter and the winter after that. They're perennials. ~ karen!
I read somewhere that the everbearing and day neutral varieties only bear fruit for one year and then have to be replaced--is that your experience? If so, that would be a big negative for me! Thx!
Hi Melinda. I've never heard of a strawberry that only fruits for one year. That is definitely not my experience with my Charlotte berries. Most strawberries, whether June bearing or any other *do* need to be replenished after 3 years because they produce less. But plenty of people don't do that. To replenish all you do is replant the runners in a new bed as first year plants. :) ~ karen!
Always love your gardening info Karen. Don't understand why I see words in yellow with a line through them. What does that mean?
With all those strawberries you may like to try making Rumtopf!
I planted strawberries between my asparagus. It worked for a couple of years.
What is the string thing you have going on? I have never seen that. Do you hang all your strawberries?
Hi Rose. I've tried different methods for keeping them clean and away from bugs. In this case I have plastic string across the beds that I can drape the berries over when they form to keep them off the dirt and away from insects. It does work but isn't fool proof. I'm still searching for the perfect method. :) ~ karen!
Thank you for doing all this planting and research and flower pinching so I can read about it, although I have no intention of planting anything this year (or possibly ever). I remember my great-aunt's strawberry patch fondly, although . . . was it my imagination or do spiders like strawberry patches?
Also: When are we going to have more pictures of your chickens?
Oh! Lol. Well the chicken run is pretty gross in the winter and the chickens don't spend a ton of time outside. :) But I'll try to feature them soon as it gets nicer out! ~ karen
Can't wait-oh how I LOVE those chickens!
Thanks Karen!
What sort of plastic circles do you put around your plants? Heavy plastic? How thick? Is it just to keep them off the dirt? Does color matter?
Colour doesn't matter. You can just cut circles of any plastic or you can buy actual strawberry rings that also hold the strawberries up off of the ground. Some people will also lay down plastic or ground cloth over the entire bed with just the plants sticking through to help prevent weeds and some insect damage. ~ karen!
I don't know how to pick out ripe sweet strawberries, but
Grand - PaPa said to pick out the sweet / ripe raspberries and blackberries, look for the ones with the biggest holes in the back. When they are picked before they are ripe and still sour, aka what's at the grocery store, they have smaller holes in the back of the berry. The ones picked once ripe and sweet have larger hollows.
Mom calls it " their belly buttons".
Lol
How would you say the charlotte strawberries were? Sweetest you have ever tasted?
Hi BJ. I did a Brix test and they tested around a 12 which is GREAT. I have to say every person I've given them to has said they were the most delicious strawberries they've ever eaten. ~ karen!
"every person I've given them to has said they were the most delicious strawberries they've ever eaten"
Same here.
And every person they've given them to have said the same thing.
These are likely the best-tasting strawberries on the planet.
The most common comment I hear is "It's like strawberry candy."