How to Grow Strawberries

Days to germination: Seedlings are more common
Days to harvest: Depends on the variety (spring, summer or fall)
Light requirements: Full sun
Water requirements: Regular watering
Soil: Fertile with organic matter
Container: Yes, with a little care

Introduction

Like most fruits, strawberries are a perennial but they only last 3 or 4 years. They cannot be established for a long-term bed without a bit of work.

You can grow strawberries even in climates with cold winters, and they can thrive so well as to take over your entire garden if you’re not careful.

Fresh strawberries are wonderful in the summer and often eaten raw. They cook well in many baked goods, and are a very popular fruit to make jam out of. Strawberries are extremely high in vitamin C, manganese and fiber.

Starting from Seed

Strawberry plants can be started from seed, but you will have to chill them for several weeks before planting to simulate a winter cold period. It’s more common for home gardeners to start their strawberries with seedlings.

Transplanting

There are 2 distinct types of strawberries: everbearing and June (or summer) bearing. Read through the Growing Instructions below on each one before you buy your seedlings so you can make the right choice.

Choose a location that will get a full day of sun throughout the summer. Plan ahead for extra space to account for any runners you let develop.

Everbearing seedlings can be about 12 inches apart, and June bearing strawberries need a bit more space at 20 inches. Plant your seedlings early in the spring, as soon as the ground has thawed enough to be dug. Add in compost or aged manure as you plant your young plants.

Growing Instructions

For the first 3 or 4 weeks after planting, pinch off any flowers that bloom. This helps the plant get established before it puts resources towards building berries.

The most troublesome things about strawberries are all the runners. Each plant will send out long stems that grow roots and start new plants. If it weren’t for their lovely fruit, you would probably consider them a pesty weed. Knowing how to handle the runners will keep your strawberries from taking over your yard, and keep the fresh fruit growing. June strawberries have the most runners, but everbearing ones do not spread out very much.

The easiest way to deal with the runners is to clip them off as they form, and not allow them to start new plants. This will keep your strawberry patch in tight control, but since your plants will only produce fruit for about 3 years, you might want to ensure future crops without having to buy more plants.

During the first year, you can cut out all runners or starter plants. In the second year, allow a few runners to take root and grow. You’ll get a full harvest from the original plants in that second year, while the new runners are just getting established. At the beginning of the third year, pull up the original plants, and let the newer ones put out their runners into the freed space. You can just manually move the runners where you want them before they root down. Continue the process back and forth each year.

Yes, it seems complicated but once you get into the routine of pruning and removing plants, it’s not that difficult. This ensures you have an ongoing crop of berries as each generation takes its place in the patch.

Keep your plants watered, particularly when the fruit is developing. Give them a good fertilizer feed midway through the summer.

Containers

Because of their tendency to spread, container strawberries need to be cared for more carefully than other container plants. Choose an everbearing variety that will produce fewer runners to start with.

One option is to purchase specialized “strawberry towers” that have little compartments in a tall pot. You plant your seedling in the top, and as the runners grow, you can root them into the other parts of the pot. This can keep your plant thriving for years if you dig out the older plants to let new runners start up.

Or you can simply put another pot or two beside your original pot, and let the runners grow into their own pots. Once the new plants are growing, snip the runner and separate the pots.

Pests and Diseases

The soft fruits lay right on the ground, making them a perfect target for slugs and snails. Pick your strawberries as soon as they are ripe, and try to reduce the slug population. They can be drowned in a saucer of beer, killed with commercial baits or traps, or you can kill them with a liberal dosing of diatomaceous earth around the plants.

Strawberry root weevils are another danger to your plants. They winter underground as larvae (grubs), and will feed on your plant’s roots until emerging as an adult weevil in late summer. So by the time you see the adults, the grubs have already made a meal of your roots, which may or may not kill the plant. Apply insecticide to kill the adults so they cannot lay more eggs. Pick them off by hand when you see them.

Harvest and Storage

Everbearing strawberries will produce fruit usually in the spring and fall, but June strawberries will only give a single harvest in late summer. Even with 2 harvests, the everbearing plants usually have a bit smaller yield than the summer type.

Your berries are ready to pick when the entire fruit turns deep red, about 30 days after the flowers were in bloom. When you pick your berries, snip a tiny bit of stem off as you do so. If you pull the stem right out of the berry, it will go bad faster.

Partially white berries can be picked if you must, and they will likely turn red if left in the sun. They won’t have the same flavor as a plant-ripened berry though.

Fresh strawberries will stay at their best in the refrigerator, for about 4 to 5 days. To store for longer periods of time, your best option is to freeze them. You can freeze them whole, or sliced. They will stick together when they freeze, so portion them into containers to use at one time. Or freeze them individually on cookie sheets. Once frozen, they can be bagged up without sticking to each other.

4 Responses to “How to Grow Strawberries”

Kristin Says:
June 28th, 2012 at 8:23 pm
Thank you for this post…I just browsed through a handful of other strawberry related sites and articles that didn’t have this simple little bit of information that you posted above:

“Or you can simply put another pot or two beside your original pot, and let the runners grow into their own pots. Once the new plants are growing, snip the runner and separate the pots.”

I was simply looking to confirm that I was doing the right thing by doing this (I do want to cultivate more strawberry plants).

Thank you for including this seemingly obvious little gem of information so that I could find it.

My runners thank you too, I already have three coming down from the mother plant into their own little pots to grow…
Administrator Says:
July 6th, 2012 at 6:40 pm
True story: I had some strawberries growing in a pot, I set them at the edge of one of my ornamental beds. They jumped out from the pot into the bed, and a few short years later I’ve got like 150 square feet of strawberry ground cover in this bed now.
jt Says:
December 8th, 2014 at 6:50 am
I am new to strawberries. I bought a huge pot of everbearing berries at my local nursery. I dug into the ground and removed the dirt and put mulch in the hole and mounded the original dirt on top then split the berries into 6 hills. I don’t think the roots are getting to the mulch. each plant developed reddish brown leaves so I miracle growed them and today I intend on working mulch around the top without disturbimg the roots too much. I read the problem is nitrogen deficiency. My compost mulch is finished and not hot do you have any other suggestions. JT
Natty Says:
April 13th, 2015 at 10:52 pm
Hello.

We just started gardening ever bearing strawberry plants and I understand you need to cut the flowers the first year until around the first week of July. My question is where do you cut the flower close to the root or close to the flower?