Strawberry plants must be effectively grown in order to produce fruit, whether you begin with seeds or plants. Selecting your strawberry variety, selecting your planting site, making a decision on a planting system, trying to prepare your selected planting location, sowing the strawberry plants, creating an optimal atmosphere, trying to care for the growing strawberries, harvesting crops, redeveloping the berry beds, and conserving the strawberry plants during the dormant months are all factors and developmental problems for growing strawberries.
Strawberries come in three primary varieties: day-neutral, everbearing, and June-bearing. Everbearing and day-neutral cultivars are not the same thing, despite what some people believe. Shortly said, June-bearers only yield one large crop over the course of a week or two, but they have the biggest fruit.
Day-neutrals produce all season long, whereas everbearers produce a greater early crop, a smaller late crop, and a few berries in between. In comparison to June-bearing types, everbearers and day-neutrals often yield fewer and smaller berries overall. Choosing the correct number of plants to start your strawberry patch is a necessary step in learning how to produce strawberries.
Your ordering and purchasing decisions will be influenced by the aims and intended usage for your berries. You may become overburdened if you purchase too many. If you don't buy enough, you can be disappointed when you run out of berries.
Strawberry Optimal Growing Conditions
Because they will quickly send out runners, strawberry plants are often placed in rich, wet soil, spaced twelve to eighteen inches apart. To guarantee the seedlings are well by the next year, put them outside in the North and higher throughout the spring.
In order to encourage the plants to focus their efforts on root development, it is often advised to pinch off all of the flowers during the first year (particularly on June-bearing types). When further south, garden strawberries can be grown in the fall and will bear fruit the following spring. After planting, mulch the spaces between the plants to preserve the moisture in the soil, prevent weed growth, and maintain a cool soil temperature.
The typical strawberry mulch is straw. Avoid using black plastic since it can increase soil temperature, and cool soil is needed for best fruit production. In order to prevent strawberries from being impacted by verticillium wilt, avoid planting strawberries wherever tomatoes, peppers, or eggplants have previously thrived.
How To Grow Strawberries
Garden strawberry plants require eight hours of direct sunlight per day, however they can be placed anywhere that receives 6 to 10 hours of direct sunlight each day. The harvest may be smaller if planted under less light. For best output, garden strawberry plants demand rich, loamy soil with a pH of 5.8 to 6.2.
Plant the berries so that the dirt covers the roots but the top is exposed to fresh air and light. The crop will rot if it is buried too deeply. One to two inches of water each week is recommended for luscious strawberries. Watering is very vital while the fruit is developing, from early bloom until harvest.
Garden strawberries thrive in temperatures ranging from 60 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. However, as long as the plant is shielded from frost, it can endure temperatures as cold as as 22 ℉.
Care & Maintenance
Strawberries need a damp climate, thus they must be watered often. To grow strawberries well, at least an inch of rain or supplementary water should be provided. From earliest bloom until harvest, offer up to 2 inches of water. In August and September, keep watering.
This latter watering reduces stress on strawberry plants, promoting fruit bud growth the next year. Strawberries need water, but they don't like standing water. Your site needs proper drainage. Strawberry plants have shallow roots, thus damp conditions can cause rot or limit fruit production. Mulching maintains soil moisture.
Harvesting Strawberries
In the late spring, garden strawberries will start to develop fruit over the course of about three weeks, however the berries will appear earlier in warmer places. When completely ripened on the plants, strawberries are at their sweetest. The only way to be certain is to taste the berries, which for the majority of kinds involves leaving them on the vine for a day or so after they are completely colored.
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When removing the berries from the plants, be gentle because strawberries are prone to bruising. Instead of tugging on the berry itself, snap or cut the stem that is directly above the berry. Berry harvests should be kept in a cool, shaded area.
Common Pests & Diseases
Due to the relatively high maintenance requirements of strawberries, you should be ready for a range of issues, involving leaf spot and other plant diseases, root rots, fruit rot diseases, gray mold, viruses, and sun scorch. Tarnished plant insect, mites, aphids, slugs, and strawberry weevils are a few examples of typical pests. A crop can be destroyed by birds if no netting is used to protect the patch.