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.
So, how did the berry plants do? Any fruit? Or just chipmunks!
I'm embarrassed to admit that I never realized strawberries came in varieties besides "wild" and "not wild." And that would explain why I don't have a garden. Between my lack of willingness to kill animals and my complete and utter ineptitude in growing plants, if I were Laura Ingalls Wilder, I'd starve to death.
There is nothing like growing your own strawberries as they taste WAY better then the ones you buy in the store. I planted Organic ever bearing and they bloom and produce all summer long.. and they are SO good.
Love the blog on them
Thank you for the source.
I'm a lucky girl. I live near the Strawberry Capitol Of The World....Stilwell, OK. And Porter Peaches from Porter, OK. And blackberries from the Owasso Christmas Tree and Blackberry Farm is just down the road. I shit you not....berries and evergreens. In a few weeks I'll do what I've done for the past 10 years: pop a couple of diet pills, grab my leather work gloves, stop by Starbucks for a latte to give the diet pills a good start, and head on over to the farm to pick no less than 30 pounds of berries for homemade wine that has earned the name Nitro.
Okay, Cindy. I am intrigued. Is your berry wine recipe a secret or would you share? Multiple types of berries go in the wine or it's strictly a strawberry wine? How did it come by the name Nitro? Explain diet pills and how that helps???
Hi GiGi, we have yet to make strawberry wine...blackberry wine gets made yearly because the farm is only 5 miles from our home. Every year we say we're gonna make strawberry and peach wines because of our proximity to world famous fruit...but never do. (The brand Stilwell frozen fruit in grocery stores...Oklahoma.) Recipes for fruit wines are pretty much the same from fruit to fruit. We don't have a secret recipe...just found it on the Great and Wonderful Google. You can't really go wrong with any recipe...if it gets screwed up it's something you did and not the recipe itself. We add a bit more sugar than whats called for because more sugar...more alcohol content...hence the name Nitro. As for diet pills...ever try to pick 30 to 60 pounds of fruit in one day? I need the extra push that a weeks worth of caffeine in two little pills provide. Wine making is very, very easy. After the initial investment all you need to buy thereafter is wine kits or fresh fruit. Bye!
I got interested in the Charlotte strawberries and found the nursery where they're at:
http://www.lareault.com/en/index.html
Only thing is, I can't find out how much they cost.
I ended up submitting my address, etc... thinking I'd get an estimate or such, but now I'm under the impression that I've placed an order (!)-- without knowing their cost. Yeek!
Karen-- can you tell us how much these plants cost in US dollars?
So sorry-- but thanks.
-- jan
Hi Jan, I paid $58.50 Canadian for 100 Charlotte strawberries. There was an additional $1.50 royalty fee on them. Shipping within Canada was $35. :) ~ karen!
What is your source for Charlotte?
Thanks for the step by step...I have tried doing strawberries in planters before and got not much of anything...Will try this in the backyard garden!
Planters are awful: I've never found anyone that had success with them.
Put them in the ground and they'll flourish.
Great info! What was the L'Oreal Mascara that you and your readers recommended? Mine is now discontinued and need a new one.
Thanks.
Anne
Hi Anne. Voluminous! ~ karen
Thanks for all the helpful instructions, Karen. I've never heard of planting a root system "like a bra over a boob" but yeah, it makes sense. Mother earth. Wow!
I await your prognoses on the Charlotte. This may be controversial, but do you find that fruit and vegetable breeders (is that the right term) tend to value a sweet flavor over all others? I'd like my strawberries to taste - yes, sweet - but also fresh, a little tart, maybe a little grassy, a little like pineapple, and deep dark red juicy. By going for sweet (and this applies to corn and carrots, as well as plums and other fruits) are we missing the essential flavor of what ever it is?
Just sayin'. Happy harvesting!
Charlottes are cool because, while they're often sweet-as-candy, you also get more tart ones.
It's like if Bertie Bott's branded a strawberry plant.
When you grow them indoors, under lights, the strawberries get insanely sweet (truly like candy), but also take longer to mature.
Outside, there's more potential for flavor variety.
In Florida the strawberry season is December through March. Even though I have lived here most of my life, strawberries still belong to SUMMER.
Good luck with yours.
You should grow Charlottes.
I grow them up in Charlotte and, while not as hot as Florida in the summer, these plants have no issue with 100F days and continue to produce.
Just a general thank you for the wealth of info you provide and for making me laugh so hard. You're kinda like Martha Stewart's (much younger) bad ass sister. Don't know how u do it all ... I just moved and I'm literally running from job to job to get the garden ready and I don't have to write a blog as well!
Thank you so much for this research, Karen. I live in the high desert where temps can dip to freezing any night of the year, so day-neutral would normally be out of the question here. BUT this year I'm planning to build a floating garden (a la BioHaven) and plant strawberries and rhubarb. The effect of the floating garden will be greater temperature control, so I think the Charlotte may be a contender. The only trick will be making sure the wicking bed doesn't soak up too much water.
Also love your sense of humor. :)
I too am disappointed in the flavor of the strawberries you buy in the stores. They are sour and bitter and most the time they are rotten. I must invest in the Charlotte to try in my own garden. As space is a issue in mine, I can only invest in a few and will have to have a way to contain them so as not to spread too far. Any thoughts on that ?
I quit eating strawberries because you can't tell how good or bad (rotten/moldy/sour) they are going to taste, until you take that first bite! I guess I've just been "molded and soured" too often and am very leery now. There is a perfect tasting berry out there that I do like, but it makes me so squeamish to try them, in case it is a bust of a strawberry.
Anyone have any hints on this? I guess I just must not love them enough to go through the pain of discovery!
Great post! I inherited a dozen strawberry plants from a neighbour last year and they didn't do much the first year in their new bed. This year, however, they are teeming with flowers. Exciting!
Will you please do a post on your asparagus experience? We have a local asparagus farm up the road and absolutely gorge ourselves for the months of April/May. I'd like to try growing my own, but don't know a whole lot about it. Plus, I just love reading about your gardening experiences!
Is it the porn that gets you into heaven, or the strawberry love that gets you into porn? I want to make sure I do this right.
Unfortunately it looks like we lost a bunch of our strawberry plants over the winter. Not having the normal harsh winter I think had a lot to do with it. When we recently uncovered them, we saw that the mice took up residence in our strawberry patch and had one heck of a buffet. Eh, that's the way it goes. If it was easy everyone would do it. New load of plants is on its way.
Happily, we still have one U-pick strawberry farm near Sauble Beach. It's a great family outing and a nice way to support local farmers. I'm starting our own small patch so we can have organic production year round here at home. The plants arrive today, so great timing with your post!
If there is an award for most imaginative garden writing I'd like to nominate your instructions on planting: "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." Totally makes sense but I can't imagine anyone else coming up with that analgoy. Genius comes in all forms ;-)
Oh, lol. Well thank you. Yeah. It's just the way my brain works. :) ~ karen!
Seascape are a fantastic variety too. You get big, juicy berries that aren't seedy like some kinds. And as a coincidence, my son is eating some of the last of my frozen "me-picked" strawberries from last year in his cornflakes. Can't believe I hoarded them for this long!